


Dancing with my heart

by SweetyMole



Category: NKOTBSB Tour, New Kids On The Block
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Dancing, Dating, Developing Relationship, Drinking, F/M, Fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2019-07-12 18:15:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16000673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetyMole/pseuds/SweetyMole
Summary: This story is a complete fiction created by my (a bit sick :D ) mind. All characters are between the ages of 25 to 30 (members of New Kids looks like they did in 2011), so sometimes it doesn’t correspond with the correct timeline.----------This is a story of a young professional dancer and choreographer, Andrea. She finished her dancing academy a few years ago and now she is trying to work her way to the top of the dancing food chain.  She is running a small dance studio and giving dancing lessons there in her hometown of Boston. She is currently living with her boyfriend Steven and she doesn’t know what adventures, happiness and sorrows are coming her way…





	1. First day and already late

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cestakrve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cestakrve/gifts).



> and any other Blockhead out there.

“New choreographer? Niiiiiice,” smiled Donnie, slowly spinning around on his chair. The New Kids On The Block decided to do the comeback. They have already been working on their new songs for some time now and the last thing that was missing, was someone to get them dancing again. Later that day, they were supposed to announce their big comeback live on the TV, and in two weeks, they should give their first performance. It was a bright May morning. They were sitting around a big office table, going over their itinerary for the day.

“Hopefully, he’ll be better than the last one,” Joey scratched his forehead and stretched his arms above his head. Jon just quietly nodded in agreement while reading his newspaper.

“Well, what can I say, Andy Cross… Finished school a few years ago, now working as a Dance Instructor in a small studio. The resume looks pretty impressive and Dave, who we know and can always rely on, told me it’s the best choice, because he had already worked with this person on some occasions,” said Ryan, one of the managers of The New Kids, who they liked the most. He shrugged while browsing through the papers.

“Looks promising, but we can´t say yes, till we see his work,” Donnie spinned on his chair for the last time. He liked to be the boss of the group, but the input of his friends and bandmates was important for him too.

“He must be really talented. You know Dave, he doesn’t give praise that easily,” Jordan looked over the edge of his phone with one of his eyebrows raised on Donnie who nodded.

“Vic is going to take you there straight from the TV appearance. You are going to meet…” he turned few papers laying in front of him looking for the answer. “... at the gym of 9th Dance Studio… Hmm interesting name,” Ryan laughed when he read the name.

“Okay, let’s see what the day holds for us,” Danny spoke for the first time since they arrived to the building. He clapped and all of the boys started to stand up from their chairs ready to leave.

***************

“Where the hell are you?!”

Annie’s phone was laying on the bed while she was trying to decide what to wear on this special day. She had a dark brown hair with growing slowly past her shoulders reaching her shoulder blades and on one side in the front, it was cut to form some sort of a long bang.  
She had a blue eyes as a baby, but as she grew up it changed to darkish grey-blue color. Her figure was sporty, not too much muscular, but it was obvious that she was working out. She had small muscles on her arms and her legs were shaped through running and dancing. She couldn’t be ashamed either by her breasts or butt, even if some girls had both of them bigger. She was just the right size for her small height of about 5 foot 3 inches.  
Her full name was Andrea Cross, her great parents originally came from Ireland to Boston to give their children a better life. She didn’t like to be called Andrea, because her grandma called her like that when she was in trouble, so she was using Andy or Annie for friends.

“You know… I was going for a run this morning... Almost got to a park but I saw an elderly lady trying to cross the street! Nobody wanted to stop, so I had to help her out. When I finally got to the park a man had a heart attack in the middle of the running path… Can you imagine it?! Naturally, I had to help him…” Andy was smiling as she was narrating this totally unbelievable story. She knew, that Henry would not buy her obvious lies, so she changed them every so often when she was late which, fortunately, wasn’t that often.

“And now I’m trying to figure out what to wear… Shit…” she said, partly for herself but loud enough, so that Henry could hear her and was now having a full on laugh attack. “Come on… you should be my support, not laughing your ass of,” she sighed as she picked the phone from the bed and sat down, turned off the speaker and pressed the phone to her ear.

Henry had another laughing fit, but slowly calmed down. “Babe, you gonna be fabulous even if you wear a potato sack!” He said sincerely and with the gayest voice he could make. Andy smiled. She could always count on him to cheer her up on every occasion.

“Just get your ass to the studio and everything will be great,” added Henry with laugh.

“Yeah, be there in a minute… Love ya,” laughed Andy and ended the call. She picked her favorite pair of black and white sweatpants, got herself into a sports bra and on top of that got a little loose cardigan that ended just below her ribs.

About a week ago, she got a proposal of a lifetime. Manager of New Kids on The Block contacted her to tell her she was picked to be their new choreographer. It was a dream come true for her. She remembered going to their concerts every time they were in town. Even kept a few items from that era to reminder her where her passion for dancing came from. She was preparing for them since then. Every evening, after the classes were over, she stayed late to study their old routines and work on some new moves to add to it.

But now she was getting really nervous. She looked at herself in the mirror. Was this really happening to her? She was just an ordinary girl from Boston, doing what she loved the most, dancing, coming up with her own choreography and teaching others. And now her favorite band hired her to make choreography for their comeback. As a little girl she could only dream about meeting her idols, and now? In a few hours they will be standing in front of her in the dance hall, waiting for her to show them what she is capable of.

She went to the bathroom and did quick french braids, to keep her hair from blowing to her mouth, picked up her bag that she prepared yesterday evening before going to bed, and ran downstairs to the kitchen. Steven was sitting by the kitchen counter reading his newspapers and sipping coffee. Andy quickly packed snacks to her bag, poured coffee to her favorite thermal mug (it was dark blue with sparkles on it, looked like a night sky if you were looking from some dark place) and added milk and sugar, because Steven liked his coffee pure black.

Steven was looking at her over the edge of the newspapers as she was trying to get everything fastly. “Late?” he said after she spilled the milk on the counter and tried to clean it.

“Nooooo….” said Andy with a high pitched voice, a clear sign she was making a joke or lying. “Can you pleeeease call me a cab? It should be faster than going by foot,” she smiled at Steven lightly, while she washed the dirty cloth.

“I think it would be better if I drive you there. You would only be more late if you have to wait for a cab,” Steven drank the rest of his coffee, stood up from the stool and went to get his things. Andy grab her bag and mug and went for the front door to wait for him there. They locked the door behind them as they left, but seconds later Andy came bursting through the door, grabbing her phone from the kitchen counter and running out again.

The drive took them about half an hour. Andy was quiet the whole time, only looking on her phone and crumpling the edges of her cardigan. Steven parked in front of the studio and looked at her. “Well, good luck baby, it will be fine,” he smiled and caressed her cheek.

“I’m so nervous, I loved them when I was like 12, went to every concert, got most of the merch at home. What if they don’t like my work? That would kill me…” Andy sighed, rubbed her forehead and looked at him for some soft of support.

“I’m sure they will like those hoppings you are doing every day,” he laughed and patted her on the knee. It was no news for Andy, that Steven was not taking her dancing as a normal job, but what could she expect. He was a high manager in an IT company, he wasn’t much of an artistic soul and didn’t always had her back in those sort of things. But she loved him and she always pushed those bad moments out of their life. Everyone was telling her, that Steven is a little bit bossy towards her and didn't always approved most of the things she was doing, but you know what people are capable to do because of love.

“And I think they will like the way you are dressed the most,” he added when he looked at her from head to toes. Annie could hear a sting of jealousy in his voice, but didn’t make anything of it, he was always like that when it came to her workout clothes.

“Yeah… hopping…” she smiled weakly, this time it got right through her heart. She grabbed her bag and sunglasses and got out of the car. She closed the door behind her and and went right for the door to the studio.

“Didn’t you forget something?” Steven rolled down his window, leaned on the door frame with his elbow and looked at her with a smile, he hadn’t even had a clue what was going on or he didn’t care, that was the most likely option. Andy came back to his window and kissed him, then she turned around and ran for the studio.

She changed her shoes to trainers and ran up the stairs to the studio they were training in. Henry already warmed up the group of dancers, mostly young kids about 15 to 20.

“First day and already late!” Laughed Henry when she came bursting through the door, jumping on one leg trying to fix her shoe. She threw her bag to the corner of the dance floor. Henry looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

“Not in a good spirit are we ey? Leeeet me guess... Steve has been reeeealy supportive this morning,” he crossed his hands on chest and winked on one of the students there.

“Can we just start please? I’m not ready to just dissect my relationship in front of my students,” she looked really annoyed but it was pain she was hiding behind her though face.  
Henry knew her for a long time now, he was really tall, like one length of a head or even a little more than her. Andy was really small, she was about 165 cm and Henry gladly made fun of her on every ocassion he had. His head was full of blonde hair, neatly cut short on the side but he was growing it long on the top of his head. They first met at high school. Both of them weren't really good in making friends, leaving them to be the awkward ones. They met one afternoon on lunch break as next to Henry was only available seat for lunch and they were inseparable ever since. He knew her so well and he was always able to tell what's going on.  
He opened up his arms to give Andy his usual bear hug. He was a really muscular man and gave the best hugs ever, the type of strong, but cuddly ones. He could almost wrap his arms around her twice.

Andy hesitated for a split second, but then she wrapped her arms around his waist (it was the closest place where she could put them).  
He hugged her really tight. “Sooo? What did he do this time?” He whispered in her ear, as he was stroking her back with one hand.

“He called my, or I should say our, work hopping…” she mumbled to his chest. Henry didn’t say anything at first and just tried not to laugh, when he was holding her, but he couldn’t hold it for a long time and started laughing out loud, tears almost coming from his eyes, his whole body shaking.

“Glad you find it funny,” Andy slapped his arm, left his warm embrace and went for the radio. “Let’s just start working, we have a long day ahead,” she sighed when she saw Henry still laughing. She turned on the music and went to stand in front of the students. After a while, Henry calmed himself to the point, where he was able to dance with her and they all started to work on their routine.

***************

“Looks like a nice place, not too many crowds around,” assessed Danny the situation, when they turned up outside the studio in their van.  
They wrapped up their interview a bit early than they expected, giving them an extra half an hour to their meeting with their new choreographer.  
They all got out of the van. Donnie took off his sunglasses to look at the place they were heading into. Jordan adjusted his collar and straighten his trousers, Joey almost fell out the van head first as his leg got stuck in the straps of their bags tossed on the floor of the van. Jon was looking a bit worried, but tried his best not to show any signs of nervousness.

“We have some time, what about some late lunch?” Joey looked around the group when he finally got up on his legs, thanks to the support of Jordan and Danny.

“Fuck lunch, what about if we go see him now? He is having a class right now, at least that's what Ryan said,” Donnie turned around with a mischievous smile on his lips. Ryan couldn’t come with them so they were on their own and could do anything they wanted.

“Well, we could try to sneak there, but... “ Joey didn’t even had a chance to finish the sentence, since Donnie already walked into the building.

“Yeah guess we are really doing it,” Jordan laughed and all of them followed Donnie’s example. They attracted few looks from the people in the building, some of them brave enough they even asked for an autograph or a selfie. After a while, someone finally told them where to find the correct hall. They went up the stairs and found it almost at the end of a hallway.

Music was blasting from the room as well as mix of man’s and woman’s voice shouting through counting the steps. Donnie slowly opened the door and all five of them stuck their heads through the gap between the door and the wall.  
They saw a group of people, the door was to their right so opening it didn’t alert them. In front of the group was a woman with a man showing the group behind them steps. They were showing it slowly, so the group could do the steps with them. The Kids slowly and quietly entered the room, hoping the two adults would not notice them there. They stood in a corner, doing like they were not actually there and enjoyed the view

“Well I think I’m going to sign up for a class,” whispered Jordan to Donnie and nodded in the direction of the woman in the front. She was wearing a nice firm sports bra and sweatpants that encircled her nicely shaped lower parts. Donnie gave a silent whistle, not that it would be hearable through the music.

“You know… I would let her teach me some moves,” said Donnie to Jordan and both of them smiled and gave each other a tiny silent high five.

“We don’t have much time, split into groups and let’s try it!” Clapped the man his hands loudly. When he turned around to see his class, he saw the five men squeezing in the corner. It surprised him a bit, but he didn’t let anybody know of them. Mostly not his friend since he knew she would probably lose all concentration upon seeing them.

The teenagers splitted to a few groups by three, but there was a pair of guys that didn’t had the third one to their party. The leader woman nodded at them with smile and pointed at them. “Guys! Looks like she is a student, not the mentor at all.” said Joey with a little laugh when he saw both Jordan’s and Donnie’s disappointed faces. And they so hoped she would be helping their new dance director! Looking at her moves from a close up would have been be very interesting.

The groups were dancing one after the other. The leader was observing, everyone who wasn’t dancing cheered for those who were. Kids kept their eyes on the groups admiring how good they were.

“Look, it’s the last group!” Whispered Joey excitedly, when the woman went with the two guys to the middle of the circle. The leader pressed play on the radio and the last group waited for the music to get to the right place for them to start dancing.  
She was standing in the middle, the two guys behind her as they did their routine. The dance was spastic, quick and looked almost impossible for a human being to be able to make those moves or bent like that, yet they did it flawlessly while looking focused. The lady even smiled mischievously during the the dance.  
The five Kids stood there in an aw, it looked like she was really flexible and enthusiastic about the dance. The routine ended and the they were supposed to do something of their own. The woman bent forward, almost to the floor while her hands gripped her own ankles, slowly rising up with the music fading.

Donnie and Jordan started clapping and whistling, others slowly joined them. It threw Andy off a bit, she quickly looked at the mirror in front of them and finally noticed the five guys, her five guys, in the corner of the dance floor.  
‘They look even better than back in the days I fangirled about them!’ she thought for herself, lowering her guard for a split second and her balance ran away. She almost fell flat on her face, if it weren't for Henry, who saved her dignity by grabbing her hand.

“Oh god.. They’re here,” she whispered to Henry´s ear and he nodded with a big smile, Andy frowned at him, he knew all the time they were there!  
“Whaaat? I thought you wanted them to know your abilities!” he added with a smile.  
The class was dismissed and Andy had to escort the students out to tell them to come back on wednesday and what would they be doing at that day. Donnie went to Henry, who was left alone and fiddling with the radio to get the music out.

“Hey, that was some great work there. Really excited to work with you, Andy,” said Donnie with a big smile on his face and shook Henry’s hand when he turned around to face them.  
Henry was a bit surprised, but didn’t get a chance to say anything. “I think this is really what we need, some fresh new blood,” Donnie continue his speech, which sounded really official.

Henry just opened and closed his mouth like a fish on the shore, unable to say a full sentence.“Yeah, but..” Henry tried to say it Wasn't him they were looking for, he was only Andy’s partner in crime but he didn’t stand a chance against the flood of praise coming from Kids.  
“We are a bit rusty, so you have to be careful and patient with us,” smiled Danny as he reached to shake his hand.

“Sorry, we should just introduce ourself. We are The New Kids on The Block. I’m Joey, this is Danny, Donnie, Jordan and the one standing way back trying so hard not to be here, is Jonathan,” smiled Joey, as he leaned on Donnie’s and Jordan’s shoulders and stood between them. Jon just gave a little wave to acknowledge him.

Andy shut the door behind the last student and turned around to see all the boys in a circle around Henry, shaking his hand and talking to him. He caught her amused look and a big smile, he tried to get her to come quickly but she took her sweet time to let Henry enjoy his few seconds of fame. She walked slowly to the group grabbing her cardigan and putting it on on the way there. When she got to the range of his arms, Henry immediately reached for her and pulled her so fast in front of him, she almost fell.

“Yeah… Guys… I think the person you are really looking for is her. Let me introduce you to Annie, or Andrea, Cross. Annie, this joyful lad in front of you is Joey. Somewhere in the mix should be Jordan and that handsome man back there is Jonathan. On second thought… It sounds like a pokemon evolution! Whatever, the muscular man should be Danny… And I think this is Donnie,” Henry put his hands on Andy’s shoulders and tried his best to remember who is who. He switched almost all of them around, leaving only Danny's, Joey’s and Jon’s names on the correct person. It didn’t seem to bother them at all as they all, including Jon, were staring at the small woman in front of them. Their jaws dropped a bit.

“Good effort Henry. Although you switched some of them around,” she chuckled a bit and pat his hand, that was laying on her shoulder.

“Well they all look the same to me and all of their names are starting with J or D, who could possibly remember it?!” He threw his hands in the air and looked at her. “Yeah I forgot….” he added when she gave him a stare.  
“You know what? If you are sooo clever now, I leave you to them. I have some paperwork that is desperately seeking my attention. See ya, honey,” he smiled at her with his best malicious smile, patted her on the head like a child and headed for the door. He enjoyed the little worried face Andy pulled on, as he was leaving.

“And by the way, my name is Henry,” he took a little bow just before he closed the door, leaving Andy and the Kids by themselves in the hall.  
Andy felt a bit uncomfortable as they were all staring at her, only Jon was smiling a bit from the back of the group. But he was probably looking at the door that closed behind Henry and not looking at Andy at all.

“I hope you are not disappointed.” she looked at all of them. She noticed Jordan standing near her, his mouth gaping open. She reached out and gently, with only the tips of her fingers, closed his hanging mouth.. Jon couldn’t hold it anymore and started laughing out loud, leaning on his knees to catch a breath.

“Yeah that’s better, you were about to start drooling on my floor and I definitely don't want that to happen. Or if you do, you would have to mop the whole dancing floor, you want that?” she whispered with a smile and one eyebrow raised to Jordan, but in the empty hall it sounded like a normal speech so Jon got another laughing fit. This time, Danny accompanied him. They were both howling with laughter and wiping tears off their eyes. Jordan finally woke up, he slowly blinked a few times and shook his head.

“Disappointed? Not one bit,” Jordan gave her his best and most sexy smile that made all the ladies weak and fall for him. Meanwhile, he hit Donnie on his chest to wake him up too. Andy smiled back at him, getting Jordan a bit confused and perplexed she didn’t cave in right away. That was new experience for him.

“Oh god girl…” Jon started to finally catch his breath, walked right up to her and gave her a big hug. He was as tall as Henry, but his hug was sweet and soft. He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her to his chest, moving from side to side a bit. Andy was taken back by his sudden action. “I think I’m gonna love ya! Nobody got my little brother like you just did,” he started to laugh again, infecting Andy to laugh with him. She hugged him back as tight as she could. Other Kids watched in awe. Their shy member was known to be cautious and shy with new people, but somehow, this little lady won him over right away!

“Oi! That’s not true!” responded Jordan with his high pitched voice which he used almost every time he lied. He crossed his arms on his chest. Andy looked at him over Jon’s arm. Only her eyes were visible, but everyone could tell she was smiling. After a while, Jon finally let go of Andy and stood beside her. She straighten out her cardigan and looked at the boys. With that sincere hug she lost a bit of her shyness.

“So…” Donnie coughed a bit and looked at her. “Should we call you Andrea or…?” He raised one of his eyebrows and crossed his hands on his chest.

“I gonna call ya Annie, that suits you the best” Smiled Joey with his big smile and shining baby blue eyes, when he reached for Andy to hug her. Andy smiled and hugged him back, it felt really strange as all of them were taller than she was.  
She was used to many hugs and touches from dance classes but right now? That was something totally different, her childhood dream just came alive with all five of them standing around her, giving her hugs.  
Danny hugged her after Joey let her go. His arms were so buffed Andy was a bit worried he will choke her to death with his strong embrace, but she was surprised at how sweet and soft this big guy was.  
Next in the line was Jordan. Andy noticed his cologne, it was the type of smell that you could just fall into and lay in for hours and hours, almost leaving her not wanting to let him go. He stroked her back and lightly touched her hair. It gave her a pleasant goosebumps.  
The last one to hug was Donnie, he didn’t make much effort to went to her at first so it was Andy’s job to hug him. His body felt so warm making her feeling calm and happy. This time it was Andy, who stroked Donnie’s back when she let go of him.

“Well, first things first… I hate when someone calls me Andrea, best is Andy, or, as Joey chose, Annie,” she smiled and rested her hands on her hips. “Second, we have only two weeks before the show and, I’m sorry but I have to say it, you haven’t been dancing together for quite some time, so we will start by getting stretched and then work on the routines, you can probably remember the basics I hope.” she brushed her hands on her sweatpants and nodded at them to get changed into their working clothes.  
All of them went to get their bags laying in the corner where they originally stood watching the performance. Donnie and Jordan took their shirts off immediately while looking through their bags for the right clothes. Andy was just getting a bit of drink, her back turned to them and when she turned around to face them, still drinking, she saw these two very good looking men, without a shirt. Her cheeks started to burn up and she choked on the sip of water she had in her mouth. Some of the water escaped her mouth through the corner. Andy swallowed the rest of the sip, quickly wiping of her mouth and tried not to cough that much. Jon was still by her side and he gave her a few hits on the back so she could breathe again.

“You know, there is a changing room right next door,” she said, catching her breath. Jordan and Donnie stood up and looked at each other, Andy could see their pretty muscular chests, her knees started to give in, but she made it till the guys didn’t left the room.

“You will get used to it with time. They go shirtless every chance they have. You are lucky they didn’t get hold of Danny this time,” smiled Jon and patted her shoulder, as she was leaning on the cold mirror wall to cool down her burning body. He then grabbed the last bag left on the ground and went to change into his sports clothes. Others, seeing Jon leaving, followed him to the changing room.  
Andy opened up a window in the hall so she could get a fresh air to her face. Jon was the first one to come back from the changing room, Andy was still standing by the opened window waiting for them.

“Sooo… I know we haven’t even started, but would you be so kind and spent some time with me alone?” said Jon a bit shyly when he went to her. Andy turned around, pressing her back to the wall around the window.  
Jon froze in his steps, realizing what he just said. “I… I mean… dancing.. Dancing lessons,” he corrected himself, brushing his suddenly sweaty palm against his legs to get rid of the nervousness coming at him. Andy looked at him closely and it looked like he was shaking a bit.

“You know, I have two left feet, so it’s better for me not training around those,” he pointed behind his back.

“Sure, I have free time everyday for hour or two, I’m sure we find some time, don’t worry,” she smiled kindly and nodded. Jon calmed down a bit since she didn’t make a fuss about it, which he was worried about. The guys came back one after the other, Donnie was talking to Jordan, Joey started to do jumping-jacks to warm himself for the dance and Danny was stretching his hands and legs.

They all started to warm up as Andy was telling them what to do. They had to stretch their arms, torso and finally legs. She instructed them what to do, just bent forward and touch the floor. She helped Jon a bit so that he could touch the floor and saw Donnie and Jordan talking.

“Come on it’s not that hard guys!” she laughed, when they realized that she was talking to them and looked at her.

“Well we haven’t done it in a long time,” Donnie gave her a wink with his best devilish smile. Andy hesitated for a moment if she should really be provoked by them, but then she threw her worries behind her head and went in front of them. She faced the mirror, her back to the guys. Joey stopped his own stretching and went to Jon.  
Andy spread her legs a bit, tried how strong her stance is and when she was ready she spread out her arms too, slowly bending forward. The guys were smiling until that point. When she started to reach for the floor, their looks followed her down and when she touched the floor, their sight ended on her butt. Donnie even tilted his head to the side and smirked.  
She reached a bit more so that her elbows would almost touch the floor too. She then looked through the gap between her legs at them with her eyebrows raised. “Told you, not that hard… And my eyes are down here, not up there…” she looked at them and smiled when their eyes finally met. Both Jordan and Donnie knew they were caught in the act, Jordan ran his fingers through his hair with a guilty smile, Donnie just coughed and tried to do the same thing she has done.

When the warming up was over, they went straight to the routines. Andy knew the setlist for the TV show, so she dusted off their old routine for “Step by step” but freshened it up with some new moves. They were going slowly, so everyone could catch up.  
It was time for The Kids to take the dancefloor and try the steps they have been learning for the past few hours. All of them, Andy included, were so sweaty, that one could almost wrung their clothes and make a little puddle on the floor.  
Andy put on the music she was given by their management and stood in the corner as they started to dance. She watched them as a hawk, making mental notes of every little flaw or a new idea she had for the routine as she saw them dance.  
She made a few changes when they finished the first run, Donnie and Jordan had some input too and ran the taught part of the routine with them slowly again, then she let them do it alone standing in front of them to make sure everything was looking good. They danced and as they were getting to the end Andy’s smile was getting bigger and bigger. The Kids stopped after the last step they knew, Andy left the music going in the background and was looking at them as they were looking at her.

“That… was awesome,” said Jordan with his typical big smile as the others were getting aware of what just happened. Andy’s smile got much more bigger than before and she started to jump up and down clapping in excitement.

“This was great!” yelled Joey and grabbed Andy around her waist, lifted her and did a few twirls with her. Andy was happily laughing and when Joey finally put her down on the ground, Jordan and Donnie got to her to hug her, each one from one side, trying to secretly push the other one away.  
Andy finally got out of their arms and left Jordan, Donnie and Joey jumping around, trying to get Danny hyped too.  
She went to Jon, who was looking at them with a smile. “You did really good,” she softly nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “I don’t think you have two left feet, maybe one and a quarter,” she chuckled and when Jon looked at her, it made him laugh too for some reason. She was that type of a person who could make anybody happy only with her smile, maybe it was because of her undying energy. He hugged her around shoulders and together they watched the remaining members jumping around.

After all of them calmed down, they had to ran through the dancing part again, learning new steps during it.  
When they were done, they had some more time to kill before the Kid´s van arrives to pick them up.  
Andy sat down on the floor, leaning her back on the cool mirrors. She was wiping her forehead and neck with a towel. Donnie was lying on his back while heavily breathing. Others were sitting around. Andy was siping her now cold coffee and Joey made her tell them everything about her, what she was working on and what brought her to dancing. He even managed to get her little fangirling secret out of her.

“So you were a fan of ours, huh,” Donnie turned his head to her with a smile.

“I still am. And I’m a bit afraid that in a moment I’ll wake up and all this will be just a dream,” she laughed and looked at them.  
Jordan, as he was sitting the closest to her, reached his hand and pinched her leg. Andy squeaked out in pain, threw a towel on Jordan’s head and rubbed her leg.

“See? Not a dream,” Jordan laughed as he was trying to get the towel from his face.

“Well I could think of a better way to let the lady know she is not dreaming, Jordan,” chuckled Donnie when Jordan got rid of the towel. He looked at Donnie with his brows raised, got on his knees and started to lift his shirt up.

“Yeah, you know what? I think I know I’m not dreaming,” Andy immediately caught Jordan’s shirt and pulled it back down. “I think I saw enough for one day,” she smiled a bit shyly, when she sat down again.  
“Well I had a different idea, but this kinda works too,” Donnie made an impressed face and slowly stood up.

“We have to make a memory of this day!” He fetched his phone from the radio stand and reached his hand to Andy, she grabbed it and he pulled her closer with such force, that she landed against his chest. Donnie grabbed her around the waist so she didn’t fall down. “Careful beauty,” he smiled at her as he helped her get her balance back.  
“Thanks,” Andy smiled at him back, rubbing her hands on her sweatpants. They all got to a circle around Andy and Donnie. Jordan stood behind Andy and next to Donnie, they all somehow hugged her, just Donnie’s hand was around her waist.

“Cheese,” laughed Donnie as he was taking the picture. He posted it to his official instagram with a caption “Working hard with our new lady!” so the fans could see they were working hard to make them proud. They heard their van driver honking outside to let them know he arrived to pick them up.

“So, see you on wednesday, if you will be able to move,” chuckled Andy when they said their goodbyes.


	2. Another day, another training

Jon called Andy the next day, to see if she was available to give him some extra lessons on wednesday, before The Kids rehearsal.  
She had a bit of a drama home, after Steven found out about the picture Donnie posted on the instagram. He was jealous everytime someone new came around and she got their attention.  
Steven apologized the next morning and everything seemed to get better again.

Andy had classes in the morning on wednesday. The day was passing by quickly, the class was over, Henry went to sort out some paperwork again, his code name for having a cigarette, and Andy was left alone in the hall.  
She was looking at her phone, music quietly playing in the background. She was tapping her feet and nodding head to the rhythm of the music.  
Suddenly, a nervous cough broke the silence and Andy lifted her head to see what's going on. Jon was standing by the door. “I’m early, ain’t I?” he looked at her, worried when he came inside and closed the door behind him.  
Andy stood up, put her phone on the stand next to the radio. “Maybe a bit, but I have free time anyway and I would love to have some company” she smiled at him to let him know that it’s okay. Jon shook away his worries and smiled too.

“Soooo… You want to go right to it?” she looked at him with a smile.

“Better to have it off my shoulders sooner than later,” Jon chuckled a bit, put his bag to the corner as he was already in his working clothes.  
Andy got him through the part of the routine they rehearsed last time, getting him comfortable in the steps. She even showed him some other routines se he would know what he is getting into. It took them some time but Jon looked more and more confident.  
“It’s all about muscle memory,” she said firmly but with a big smile, she loved dancing and even more loved to show others how to dance. “And I think you got it pretty quickly, others will be impressed,” she laughed and stopped the music.

“Well, I’m more worried about making a fool of myself on live television,” Jon was leaning against a wall trying to catch a breath. He looked at her with worries in his eyes.

“It’s my job to make sure you won’t, so stop worrying about it and leave that to me, okay?” she looked him straight to the eyes giving him no option to say no. He just shrugged his shoulders and threw his hands around.  
“You know what? I’m starving. Food and coffee?” She said curiously after a moment of silence while packing her stuff in the bag.

“Sounds good to me,” he scratched the back of his neck with a little smile.

“Just give me a minute to change into not sweaty clothes and we can go,” she nodded at him and went running out the doors.

Jon was way quicker in changing so he was waiting by the front door to the building, checking his phone. “We can go,” he heard Andy’s voice and looked up. She was wearing a light blue dress that showed her shoulders and wore her favourite pair of ballerins. “Is something wrong?” She looked at him when she saw his amazed look.

“Nothing, lookin’ good but…” He started to sweat a bit, looking more uncomfortable than ever.

“I know I’m not your type, don’t worry,” she smiled a bit amused. Andy didn’t want to get Jon uncomfortable but it was so easy to get to him that she had to be careful about everything and to be honest she was not very good in being careful around others.  
They went to a starbucks nearby to get a coffee and Jon picked out a restaurant that had good food and a take away, then they went to a park across the street from the dance studio and sat at one of the picnic tables as the weather was really nice, it was sunny with a light breeze.

“Can I ask you something?” Said Jon after a moment of silence while Andy dug into her food looking into his cup of coffee and playing with his plastic fork in the other hand.

“Fire away,” she mumbled with her mouth full, she was really hungry.

“How did you… you know,” he finally looked at her, Andy stared at him for few seconds trying to figure out what he means.

“Oooh, that you are… different?” She pointed at him with her plastic fork and Jon nodded. “Well, I’m used to men looking at me while I’m dancing. They are checking my butt, like Donnie and Jordan did, I’m pretty sure I even saw Danny trying not to look. But as I’ve been in the industry for some time now, I’m used to people being different. They don’t look at you the same way, just like Henry. He is basically my big sister,” she shook her head at the end of the sentence and stuffed her mouth again.

“Henry is also…?” Jon didn’t even finish his question and Andy was already nodding her head in agreement. She had to chew for a minute to swallow the food in her mouth.

“And he told me you are a one hell of good looking guy,” she smiled, winked at him and sipped from her coffee.  
They were talking throughout their whole lunch about families, friends and hobbies. Jon go to know that Andy had a boyfriend, that they met at a party of a mutual friend and been together for about five years. She obviously didn’t tell him how bossy and jealous he could be. They talked until they were finished and headed to the studio with the drinks in their hands. They both got changed back into their clothes waiting for others to arrive, talking again.  
Andy was laughing at something that Jon said to her whilst the door opened up and the four guys went in.

“Here you are, you little weasel!” Yelled Joey when he saw Jon sitting right next to Andy on the floor, both laughing. They were all already changed into their sports clothes. Thank god, ran across Andy’s mind when she saw them. No more half naked running around and no more blushing for her.

“To be honest, you are exactly…” she checked her watch, “...five minutes late,” she looked at them with one eyebrow lifted, crossing her hands on her chest.  
The rehearsal went normal this time. They got through the part of the routine from last time again, Andy was looking proudly at Jon who didn’t made any mistake. It was time to get started on the second part of the routine. It went by pretty quickly as most of the steps they already knew.  
The part that Andy loved so much was missing from this set up. “Aaaaw.. What a shame. I love that part,” she sighed, when the music changed pace to make a bridge to the next song in the set. 

“Isn’t that the part with Jordan’s funny dance?” said Donnie when he stretched his legs after the dance and Andy gave him a thumbs up.

“Not sure if I still remember it,” Jordan laughed, trying to loosen up his knees to do the dance.

“I think I can help with that. That, or I eternally embarrass myself,” Andy smiled like a little devil and started to look through her phone. She played Step by Step on it, found the right place just when they started to sing the steps. “You ready?” she put her phone in the pocket of her sweatpants and looked at Jordan provocatively.

“Oh, it’s on, girl,” he frowned at her, but with an amused smile, and both of them waited for the right time to start. Donnie got out his phone to make a video of this little duel. The right part started and both of them looked like one person, they moved almost the same and the other boys were cheering them.

“This is what dedication looks like, folks!” Laughed Donnie, as he was filming their legs. Both Andy and Jordan stroke their final pose just before Jordan’s part of song started again, held it for a second and then both of them started laughing.

“You got them moves, girl!” Jordan was laughing and grabbed her around the waist, picked her up and was jumping around with her. Andy had to hold him by his shoulders but couldn’t stop laughing, as the other joined to their jumping, including Donnie with his phone.  
This highlight ended another day of training, leaving all of them pretty much exhausted. The Kids were able to go home and relax, but Andy had to train with their dancers. When she finally got out and could go home, it was dark outside.

Days went by faster than Andy ever expected. Everyday, she was looking forward to seeing the Kids again and dancing with them. They were on schedule, so she wasn’t stressed about not making the show, allowing Kids to have fun in the training. Most of the times Donnie ran around half naked, Jordan was doing his sexy dances and stares, both of those actions made Andy blushed a bit. There were times when Joey ran to her, hugged her and ran away, most of those times Andy just turned around to face them, so she was almost knocked down everytime Joey pulled off something like that. One time, he got so excited, that he ran around the hall, hitting everyone’s butt, when he got to Andy, he hit her too, after a second he realized what he had done and looked at her with his eyes widened. Andy didn’t know what to do for a moment, staring blankly at him, but then she just smiled.  
There were times when Donnie jumped on Jon being excited that he made all the right steps, Joey joined him, Danny too and at last Jordan, and they made a laughing pile of human bodies.

Andy grew very fond of them. Honestly, who wouldn’t like five guys acting like children, who were so grateful for their second chance around.


	3. Sausage, anyone?

It was the last weekend before the show. Most of the routines were done and they were now only polishing it. Yesterday they started the last one for their new song called “Summertime”.   
It was a sunny saturday, Steven went on a business trip for the whole weekend so Annie had free time and she was spending it with her mum Jennifer. Andy’s mum had house on the outskirts of Boston with a big garden with patches of grass, many trees and plots, where Jennifer grew her own vegetable and fruits.  
Andy helped her mum to do some gardening and cleaning around the garden and house. It was the house she grew up in and she loved to spend time there whenever she could. After the hard work was over they got in Andy’s car and went to do a little bit shopping in the town center. They had so much fun, Andy was able to tell her about everything that happened since she met the Kids and she even told her about the fights with Steven that had been pretty much on a regular basis now.  
As they were pulling out from the garage outside the shopping centre, Andy’s phone rang.

“Can you pick it up and put it on a speaker mum?” Andy asked, when she was backing from the parking spot.

“You have to tell me again how to do it. I swear, every time you want me to pick it up, you have new phone!” Jennifer took the phone from the compartment box and looked at it.

“It’s still the same, mama,” she laughed and drove the car to the exit and on the street. “Just slide the green circle to the right, then push a little speaker icon when you see it,” 

Jennifer slide the correct button and the call was answered. “Oh god, it’s so tiny those icons!” she said, while trying to figure out what to push.

“Why don’t you have a hands free installed in this car?”  
“Because there was no time to get it done! The button should be somewhere in the middle.”  
“Can’t you do it yourself? I need to get my glasses.”  
“I’m trying not to get us killed in the traffic. I really can’t answer the phone right now, mum!”  
“Found them! Now where is the speaker icon….”  
“You know what, I’m pulling up before you destroy my career,” Andy laughed and looked for a spot to park for a few minutes.

“Ah, there it is, it really looks like a little speaker!” Jennifer whooped with delight, after she pushed the correct button. Andy was already pulling up at the empty parking spot and was quietly laughing.

“Andrea Cross?” she spoke a bit loudly, checking her mirrors while parking. The only answer she got was laughing and a mix of other sounds. She stopped the car and took her phone from mum’s hand to look who is calling. It was Donnie’s number. She widened her eyes. The laughing on the other side got hysterical, someone had to be crying out from laugh. 

“I thought you would be crying with pain after yesterday training, Mr. Wahlberg, not laughing,” she said with an amused smile on her face while shaking her head. The laughing stopped in a matter of seconds and a moment of silence followed. Jennifer looked at her daughter with her eyebrows raised.

“It wasn’t thaaat bad,” answered Donnie with his sly voice. “Yeah, he was just complaining aaaall morning long,” spoke Jordan with a laugh somewhere from behind Donnie´s shoulder and Andy could hear a small thud, Donnie probably hit Jordan on the back.

“Is there something you need, guys?” Andy passed the phone back to her mum and started to search for the phone holder in the glove box.

“Well, as it’s a very nice day today, we thought you could join us on a really nice barbecue party we are holding,” this time it was Donnie speaking.

“I’m just on my way to get my mum home, we had a really long day shopping,” she smiled while mounting the holder onto the front window.

“She can come too of course!” This voice belonged to a woman, probably the age of her mum. Andy looked at her own mum.

“I don’t know ma. Do you want to meet the pack of wild animals and have a dinner with them?” She looked at her, a bit worried. The guys were great, but meeting her mum? Even Steven had to wait at least few months to meet her.

“Oh, I would love me some sausages!” Jennifer laughed.

“Mooom!” Andy looked at her, horrified after this naughty joke her own mother let out, and she shook her head.

“I’ll send you the address, but could you be a dear and pick up Joe Mac on your way here?” asked Donnie with his most kind voice he could do, and the truth is, he didn't do it very often.

“Is he lost or something?” Annie laughed, leaning her elbow on the window, biting her lip.

“He got stuck in a….. salon,” Donnie was trying to hold down the laugh that was coming on him, but it was pretty clear from his voice. Annie's eyebrows went up and she bit her tongue trying not to laugh too on the imagination of Joey in the beauty salon.

“Not gonna ask…” Andy just shook her head after a moment. “Send me where he is and I pick him up. Tell him to look for a dark blue Audi SUV,” she smiled, rubbing her forehead. ‘At least the first one mum is going to meet is Joey,’ a thought quickly went through her mind, as she was putting the address, that Donnie just sent, in the phone navigator.

“Okay, see you here, beauty!” Said Donnie before he hanged up.

“He sounds like a real gentleman, calling you beauty and all,” smiled Jennifer and wiggled in her seat.

“Yeah, he sounds like one, but just wait before you meet him,” Andy smiled and her mum could see her cheeks went a bit red. Jennifer smiled for herself, knowing her daughter well enough to know, that charming voice in the phone belongs to someone, who was probably her favorite.

“Let’s go pick the real beauty up,” Andy laughed, started the car and began the journey to find Joey.  
They drove for a while until they got to the given street. Andy slowed down, looking around for any sign of the Kid she was supposed to pick up. They got half way through the street, when Annie spotted a young man sitting on a bench with lots of plastic bags around him, looking at his phone. She stopped right by him, rolled down the window on mum’s side, and leaned over her.

“Sorry for disturbing, sir, but did you ordered an Uber?” she said with as much official voice as she could do, and smiled at him. Joey’s head lifted and he squinted his eyes at the car in front of him. It took him a minute to focus on the person in it, but when he did his face lit up and he smiled.

“Well, I didn’t know that my ride will be with these lovely ladies,” he said with a seductive smile and Jennifer laughed as a little teenage girl, which really surprised Andy. She got out of the car and went to Joey.

“Hey cutie, daaamn you look gooooooood!” Joey looked at Andy from head to toe and nodded his head. She did a tiny twirl in front of him. It was a warm day, so she decided to wear jean shorts, a blouse that sat on the sides of her shoulders, revealing them, and platform heels. Finally, after he was satisfied with his view, he hugged her tightly.

“Hello to you too mister, should we put your many stuff in the trunk?” She asked, stroking his back in a hug. Joey nodded and they both packed all the bags to the trunk of the car.  
“You will have to take the back seat, mum is not moving,” Andy laughed while getting in to the car. Joey just threw his arms around and shrugged. He tried the back door, but it wasn’t opening.

“Oouu, sorry. It’s the kids protection…” Andy reached out for the back door from the driving seat to let Joe in. He finally sat down in the car and buckled up in the middle. “Kids protection? Really?!” He sounded a bit offended, but calmed down when he looked at the woman in the passenger seat.

“I didn’t know Annie had a younger sister. Hi, I’m Joey McIntyre,” he did his best seductive smile and reached his hand to Jennifer. Annie was watching him in her rear-view mirror like a very protective hawk.

“Nice to meet you too, young man, Jennifer Cross. And thank you for your compliment, but I’m Annie’s mum,” Jennifer shook Joey’s hand with a smile and then leaned to Andy.

“I wondered why you liked them so much, now I know,” she whispered, half amused.

“You know only one of the five, mum, the most calm and cute one, leave your judgement when you meet them all, okay?” Andy looked at her with one eyebrow raised and they both raised their sight to the rear-view mirror and looked at Joey, who was sitting at the middle back seat, smiling like an angel himself, hands neatly folded on his knees.

“Ooookay, let’s go before the ice cream in my trunk melt,” Andy turned back to the steering wheel and started the car. She registered the frightened look on Joey’s face. “Yes I saw the container and I hope you bought enough chocolate flavor for both of us,” she laughed and looked him straight in the eyes.  
The journey went well. Joey took care of the conversation, supplying with jokes and stories the ladies in front. Jennifer never laughed so hard in her life and it was change for Andy, because after her dad passed away, her mum was not smiling that much. Andy was listening to them chatting only on half ear, she tried to concentrate on the street in front of her, but couldn’t help getting more nervous the closer they were to the red dot on the mobile map.

“Oh, some nice houses here, I hope you know where you are going, love,” said Jennifer, as Andy pulled in the street with the correct address in it.

“I don’t, I’m here for the first time, but this handy dandy device knows it better than me,” Andy smiled. The car was going slowly and she was looking all around for the right place to stop by.

“Yeah, You just missed it,” noted Joey from the back seat as they missed a white house with a long driveway to it

“Well you could have bloody said something!” Andy sighted and reversed back. The driveway was surrounded with trees and bushes someone had to maintain, because they were beautifully cut. She parked right next to a silver mercedes.

“Woow, I could imagine living in something like this,” Andy sighed, dreamily looking at the house. Joey had already got out of the car and was helping Jennifer out, politely holding door for her. This house was like a dream Andy used to have when she was little. Big house with lots of rooms and a big garden for her dog.

They got all the bags out of the trunk, the first thing Joey checked was his ice-cream, and then he went to the main door. Jennifer was caring only one bag. Joey demanded he would carry most of the shopping.  
Joey opened the door like he was at home there, and let the ladies inside. The space behind the door was most likely a living room. There were stairs to the right that led upstairs. On a big sofa was comfortably seated Jon, his back to them, reading a book. When he heard the door, he turned around and smiled.

“Hey, they are finally here!” he hollered in the direction of a kitchen, where Joey went when he grabbed the remaining bags from Andy’s hands as she was looking in awe around.

“Yeah finally…. She’s worse driver than you, Jordan!” spoke Joey loudly and that made Andy woke up.

“Excuse me?! I’m an excellent driver, I just missed the turn!” she tossed her arms around, frowning. “You know what? Next time you need a lift, just go by foot,” Andy said offendedly, her hands crossed on her chest, while frowning behind Joey. Jon laughed and got up to welcome the guests. He gave Andy his regular bear hug and did the same with Jennifer, after Andy introduced them.

“I’m not a bad driver, Joey! You are! I'm not the one who had to be picked up,” Jordan defended himself, when he set foot in the living room, yelling back into the kitchen at the benjamin. He stopped in his tracks, staring at Andy. Donnie, walking behind him, crashed into his body as he was not expecting him to stop that abruptly. He raised his head to see what is going on, as Jordan stayed like frozen, staring at Andy, who was speaking with Jon. They only knew her in sweaty clothes such as sweatpant and t-shirts, but now both of them saw her as a beautiful lady.

“Woow,” gasped Donnie for air and stared for few more seconds, before he went around still solidly frozen Jordan.

“You look really good, beauty,” he smiled as he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.  
Andy turned a bit red while babbling something about a thanks. When Donnie let her go, Jordan was already standing in line to give his welcome.

“You have to wear this more often,” he smiled and softly hugged her. He had the same cologne as the first time they met. Andy sneakily hugged him a bit tighter so she could breathe in the smell a bit longer. He kissed her on hair and let her go with a smile on his lips. Andy could now feel her ears getting red and she was getting hot in general, feeling like steam could be coming out of her ears. She tried to stay as calm as possible, she cleared her throat few times.

“Guys, this is my mum, Jennifer,” said Andy with a nervous smile when all the Kids finally gathered around them in a big circle. All of them greeted Jennifer with a hug and few sweet words, it was like someone had switched them overnight, Andy was taken back by their behaviour. Donnie and Jordan got Jennifer between themselves, each one offered her an arm leading her to a chair while complementing her.

“What are they on?” Andy whispered to Jon who was the only one that stayed with her. Jon burst out trying not to laugh out loud.

“I think they are just trying to give a good impression,” he wiped the tears that came out his eyes and was quietly laughing.

“Don’t you think they are trying a liiiiittle bit too hard?” Andy looked at him with her eyebrow raised.

Before Jon was able to answer her question, a little lady came out of the kitchen. She smacked Donnie on his head with a kitchen towel. He looked at her, baffled on why he was hit. “Well the grill isn’t going to start itself, does it?” She looked at him firmly with arms on her hips. Donnie didn’t say a word, just stood up and went through the door to the deck.

“I have to try that sometime!” Andy whispered to Jon amazed how Donnie was listening to the lady without complaining. Jon laughed and took Andy’s hand and brought her to the lady. 

“I would like you to meet someone, this is Donnie’s mum, Alma,” Jon smiled and Andy understood now why he was so obedient.  
Alma turned around and looked at her with a small frown. Andy felt a little bit uncomfortable, Alma had really piercing look, that type which could examine your intestines in a second. It felt like nobody took a single breath in the room, all eyes were on Alma and Andy. She was a small lady in her late 70s, but she still looked good. 

“Look at you honey, such a lovely lady, you must be Annie. I heard so much about,” she smiled and the tension in the room was gone. Alma took Andy’s hands in hers, they were so warm and kind that Andy was already feeling better. “The boys can’t shut their mouth about you, especially Donnie and Jordan,” she gave her a little mischievous smile.

“Oh… Okay…” Andy was a bit taken back by this when she saw Jordan by the corner of her eye, covering his face with his hands. It was certain that you can’t have any secrets before Alma, she knew and said everything.   
“Nice to meet you too. You really have to teach me how to get them in line like that!” she giggled when Alma hugged her.

“I had 9 kids honey, I had to keep them from killing each other on a daily basis,” Alma laughed and patted her on shoulder.

“Alma?” said Jennifer when she finally freed herself from the Kids company. She got up from the sofa and went to her. “Jennifer, is that you?” said Alma in surprise.

Donnie just stuck his head to the patio door to tell everyone that the grill is ready for the meat, but he didn’t made any sound, as the two older ladies began to cheerfully greet each other.

“What’s happening?” Donnie came to Andy and whispered to her ear. She shrunk back a bit by his presence right beside her and looked at him. He was standing so close she could smell the burnt charcoal from the grill, in that moment she forgot about everything and everyone and just stared at him getting lost in his hazelnut eyes. He was looking at her for a while and then raised his eyebrows with a smile. That slight movement woke Andy up, she blinked and looked around, hoping nobody saw her little freeze and her red cheeks. Fortunately for her everybody was occupied by watching the reunion.

“Yeah, don’t have a clue,” she cleared her throat and looked away. “Mama?” she looked at her curiously if she would care to explain what is going on. Meanwhile Donnie rested his arms around her neck, elbows sticking out to the front.

“Well me and Alma had been friends for years, until she moved away from Dorchester. We lost contact after it,” Jennifer looked at her daughter, Andy’s jaw dropped.

“We have a Dorchester girl here, no wonder she's so tough,” smiled Jon.

“You want to tell me that you knew Wahlbergs and didn’t even tell me?” Andy’s voice got a bit high for Donnie’s liking and he had to rub the ear that was closest to her and shook his head. Andy noticed it and mouthed little “Sorry” to him. Donnie just nodded his head with a smile.

“I didn’t think it was that important,” Jennifer shrugged her shoulders.

“Next you’ll tell me that I played naked in the mud with Mark as a baby and you have pictures…” Andy rubbed her forehead and looked at her mum through fingers on her face.

“Except it wasn’t Mark, but little Donald here,” Jennifer nodded in Donnie’s direction with a serious face but her regular smile. Andy and Donnie on her shoulders froze in their movement and opened their mouth, Jon spat out his drink and all of them were looking at the pair. Danny just came back from who knows where holding some papers and the scene in living room caught his attention.

Jennifer hold it for a minute or two until she burst out laughing. Andy’s face turned into a baffled one until she stared at her mum with disbelief.

“Just kidding, when me and Alma met, you two were already in school,” she waved her hand hand still laughing. Alma and Jennifer disappeared into the kitchen still laughing.

“This evening is going to be interesting,” giggled Joey and seated himself comfortably on the sofa next to Jordan.

“Just wait until she is telling you stories about my dance classes when I was 5,” she made a face at him but showed a smile afterwards.

“Anything to drink?” Asked Donnie while slowly moving towards the kitchen to get the stuff for the grill. “Just juice or something non-alcoholic, have to drive afterwards,” she held her hands in a begging sign and smiled at him.

“Anything for the lady,” Donnie took his imaginary fedora of his head and took a deep bow before her. Andy took a little lady curtsy

“Hey, what about us?” yelled Jordan after him from the sofa where he was kicking back, leg across leg in his usual seating.

“You got legs, don’t you?” Was the answer from the kitchen followed by a laugh. Jordan started arguing with him over the distance, that Don is the host and therefore he should take care of them all, not only the lady part of the group. Andy left them behind her back and went through the patio doors. The garden was pretty big, but still not as big as her mum’s. Most of the space was filled with grass and fruit trees here and there, even some bushes like those surrounding the driveway. Mild breeze was playing with the new leaves on the trees and it made her shiver a bit.  
She took a deep breath to get the fresh air into lungs, she loved nature, that was the reason she took her morning runs always in the biggest park in Boston.

“Drink for the lady,” spoke Donnie next to her ear and handed her a big glass of a drink. It looked like cocktail done by a professional. She took the glass from his hand and looked at it suspiciously. “Don’t worry, non-alcoholic. Took care of it myself,” he winked at her and went to the grill with a big plate of meat, sausages and vegetables, that was balancing on his other hand.

“Thank you. Your mum has a really nice house,” she spoke while taking a seat on a garden sofa, placing her phone on the table in front of her. She took a sip from the straw, it was cranberry juice mixed with something very good.

“Helped her pick it out myself, we are a big family so the bigger the better,” he laughed and started placing the food on the hot grill. Rest of the Kids were appearing on the deck, one by one, attracted by the smell of cooked meat.  
Joey took a seat next to Andy, so he could have a conversation with her without the need to yell across the others. He was the one who always wanted to talk about family, work and wanted to know everything about others.  
Jon took his favorite place in a big comfy armchair next to them, and Andy made sure to involve him in the conversation. Jordan and Danny were discussing things of their own and after some time even Alma and Jennifer joined them on the deck.  
It was like a nice family dinner. Andy was from a small family, her father was always somewhere working, so she wasn’t used to so many people around her. To be honest, she was a bit petrified to be around so many people, but this time she felt like home.  
Joey made her to talk about her family a lot, so at the end of the evening, The Kids knew that her father passed away few years ago, that she had a older brother who now had a family of his own, busy working, but he was trying to make an appearance at least for the holidays.  
Donnie was supplying drinks and a very good food from the grill. Alma get all the silverware they needed, flavoured dips and a basket of bread.  
As the evening progressed, the talk turned more to work related themes. Kids were discussing their new routines, praising Andy’s work and coming up with new ideas for some moves.  
The sun went down and Alma turned on the lights around the patio, making it look like from a fairytale. The breeze got colder and Andy caught herself rubbing her arms.

Jordan, who was sitting next to her for the past hour, noticed it, took off his black leather jacket and put it over her shoulders. “Take this, I can see you are shivering,” he smiled and rubbed her shoulders.

“Thanks, wasn’t expecting to be out so late, bad choice of outfit,” she chuckled and stuck her hands through the long sleeves.

“Wouldn’t call it bad choice,” he smiled on half mouth and winked at her. A little nervous laugh made it out of her and she tucked one strand of hair behind her ear. At that moment, her phone started ringing and making a crazy dance on the glass table. Donnie saw a picture of a handsome man on the display, before Andy quickly grabbed it.

“Have to take it, excuse me,” she smiled while standing up from the sofa and quickly went inside leaving the door open. “Hey baby,” she said with a little nervous smile looking outside at the Kids.

“That must be her boyfriend Steven calling her to check what she is doing,” noted Jennifer from the table next to the sofas to Alma.

“Steven? Sounds like a troublesome name,” Alma chuckled and Jennifer just quietly nodded. Donnie overheard what was said and looked at Jordan with his eyebrow raised. Jordan just got comfortable on the sofa, leaning as back as he could.

“So what?” He mouthed to Donnie and threw his hands around. Donnie just smacked his face with his palm and shook his head.

“Well, I don’t know who had to leave when we had plans for the weekend!” sounded Andy’s a bit high-pitched voice from the living room. All of them turned their head to face the door, where Andy was furiously pacing from one end of the door to another. The next conversation was silent but strict. At one point she stopped pacing, rubbed her forehead and had a resigned look on her face.

“Well, that sounds like one hell of a love,” noted Danny when he turned back to his friends.

“She didn’t tell you? Steven was always bossy and possessive, but when you guys came into the picture, it’s been getting worse and worse,” said Jennifer a bit quietly, so her daughter couldn’t hear her.

“She did not say a thing. I’m not sure if she even said that she’s taken…” Joye scratched the back of his head and left his hand there to support his head. Donnie turned his head to Andy again, now she looked a bit sad but when she made eye contact with him she quickly smiled and turned her back to him. Donnie was still looking at her for a moment until he turned his attention back to his friends.

“If you would actually talk to her sometimes, instead of checking her butt every time, you would know thing or two about her life,” noted Jon behind his newspapers, from his voice they could tell he is smiling with his half sarcastic smile.

“Here’s to Jon, to our one and only know-it-all,” Donnie raised his glass with whiskey and ice in it as Jon took a little bow with his head. Before Donnie could take a single sip of his beloved drink, the glass disappeared from his hand. He looked in shock at his now empty hand, blinked a few times to make sure that it is really gone. Joey nodded his head next to him, where Andy was standing. She knocked back Donnie’s drink in one go. He traced everyone’s sights to her.

“Oh god, that’s strong!” She shook her head and coughed few times.   
Donnie looked at her in disbelief as she was shivering after it. “I thought you were driving…” he said with a higher voice and his eyes widely open.

Andy froze, looking at him with her eyes getting bigger and a fear came over her face. “Fuck….” she breathed out, looking at the glass in her hand horrified. That was at least a triple shot of whiskey she just gulped! She slowly turned around to face her mum. She made a really guilty face at her and Jennifer started laughing.

“It’s okay honey, I’ll call myself a taxi and you stay here with these handsome fellows. You look like you need to have a good time with your friends anyway,” she winked at her and almost not noticeably nodded in the direction of Kids sitting behind her. Danny could not hold his laugh and bursted out, trying to cover it with a cough.  
Andy squinted her eyes at her with a little frown. Her mother surprised her in more ways today than anytime before. Jennifer just smiled and went with Alma inside.

Andy sat down on the arm of Donnie’s armchair and looked at him. “I’m gonna need another one… And make it double, or triple,” she handed him his empty glass. Donnie’s smile got bigger, he patted her on her thigh and rose to his feet.

“As you wish, beauty,” he chuckled and went to the kitchen for his secret stash. Andy slid down from the arm to the seat, her fringe covering her eyes. She blew some air up to get it away.

“Wohooo, it’s sleepover party!” Yelled Joey in excitement and rose his glass up. Donnie came back just in time to hand Andy her glass and all of them rose their glasses and clinked them.

“Yeah... woohoo,” said Andy almost for herself, when she got back to the seat and Donnie sat on the arm, next to her. There was no way Steven could find out about this. Otherwise, she would be a dead lady standing.


	4. What did you do?!

The morning after the party was a little rough.  
Andy woke up to sun subtly shining in her face and her head hurting, but it wasn't nothing major.   
She silently grumbled and rubbed her face on her pillow at first, trying to cover it to escape the sun. She hoped to get few more minutes of sleep, but her body started to wake up as well and she slowly gained sense of her surroundings. Her left arm, which she was sleeping on, was numb as well as one of her legs. She felt a bit sore in general.

Her pillow moved, which didn’t make Andy happy and she yawned. She slowly lifted her head, rubbed her eyes with one hand and looked sleepily around. On the second sofa directly opposite from her was sleeping Jon and Joey. Jon was laying on his back, one leg bent, the other one touching the floor. He was hugging Joey with one of his arms.  
The benjamin was comfortably laying on his chest, his waist tucked in between Jon´s legs.. They both got blanket on them.  
Andy couldn’t help but smile, because these two were too cute laying there like this. She looked more around the room and found Danny, who was trying to fit his broad shoulders in a somewhat comfortable position in the armchair nearby.  
Now her pillow moaned and Andy finally looked at the very soft thing she was laying on. Donnie was sleeping on his back with his head tilted backwards and with slightly opened mouth. She was sleeping on his chest, not on a pillow all night!  
He looked so peaceful and calm at that moment. He had one arm behind his head and the other across her shoulders. She could stay there and stare at him all day. They too had a blanket on them. Andy looked around for the last Kid missing, Jordan. She realised that her legs was not laid on the sofa, but on someone’s legs, that was also the reason why they were hurting so much.  
Jordan was half sitting, half lying on the other end of their sofa. He was tilted to his side, one arm under his head on the arm of the sofa as a pillow, the other was softly laid on the blanket across her legs.  
‘How come they are all so cute when sleeping?’ she asked herself, when she looked around the room again with a smile. Her legs started to hurt a bit more, so it was time for her to escape this cute prison. She slowly took her legs from Jordan’s lap, very slowly so she would not wake him up, while taking the blanket with her. He wriggled, took a deep breath, found more comfortable place to lay his head on, and slept.  
Now the other part of her escape. She looked at Donnie and as she tried to lift herself on the one working hand, his hand fell down from her shoulders. She froze, staring at him. Donnie smacked his lips, rubbed his face, but it didn’t look like he woke up. Andy finally stood up, almost fell back as her legs gained new supply of blood and started to pulsate. She carefully put the blanket on both of them and limped her way to the kitchen. On the kitchen table was a big cattle with coffee and six mugs, also sugar in a jar and a note that the milk is in the fridge.  
Alma had to wake up before them, as there were no signs of her being in the house now. Andy smiled and poured coffee into a blue mug, she tried to open the fridge slowly, so it didn’t wake up anybody, and added a bit of milk to her mug and then sugar. She looked out from the window. The sun was shining and the sky was without a single cloud. Andy slowly opened the door to the patio from the kitchen and slipped outside. When she stepped on the pavement floor she shivered as it was cold and she was barefooted. After a second she got used to it, zipped up the jacket she received from Jordan last evening, and probably will never return, and leaned on the railing with her elbows, slowly sipping the still hot coffee.   
As she was standing on the patio she stretched her stiff neck and was enjoying the quiet morning. After some time outside deeply in her thoughts, she ran out of coffee. She looked down on her wrist to check what time it is. It was couple minutes after ten. As she was looking down, she noticed a big bruise on the side of her left thigh. “Thanks a lot Joey,” she said with a quiet voice and sighed. She returned to the house same way she went out, noticing movement in the living room. Danny was rubbing his face while standing next to his so called bed. When he saw Andy standing in the kitchen, he made his way there.

“Morning, coffee?” Andy whispered with a little smile, pointing at the table.

“Oh god, yes please!” he said with his voice cracking a bit, but he kept it low as well. Andy poured coffee from the cattle to one of the mugs and handed it to him. “You look well rested,” he looked at her curiously after taking a big sip.

“Believe me, I’m knackered, but I already had my coffee,” she chuckled quietly and yawned as she was leaning with her back on the kitchen counter.  
He looked at her with one of his eyebrows raised. Andy felt like he could see into her soul with those beady brown eyes. She quickly looked away, but could tell from Danny’s face he thought his own. She bounced from the counter and poured two fresh new cups, leaving two empty for Danny to take care of.  
Then she went back to the living room, as she saw Jordan waking up behind Danny’s back. Jordan was rubbing his eyes and squinting around the room. His always perfectly shaped hairstyle was gone, leaving his hair lying flat on one side of his head, somewhere pointing into the sides. She passed him the cup of coffee, which was smelling amazingly. Jordan breathed in to say thanks with a big smile, but Andy stopped him by pressing her finger against her lips.  
He looked confused at first, but when she pointed on the other sofa, where Jon and Joey were still asleep, he understood. Joey had a blissful smile placed on his lips as he was snuggling to Jon, who was soundly sleeping and still having his arm around Joey's shoulders.  
Jordan had to hold down his laughter, so he rather sipped his coffee while still looking at those two. Andy sat down on the floor between the sofa and a coffee table, facing the other sofa, looking at them as well. Donnie was still sleeping, but the smell of a fresh coffee around him woke him up. He rubbed his face and eyes and yawned, stretching his arms in front of him. Andy silently handed him the other cup she was holding.

“Oooh, breakfast in bed?” he rolled on his side, so he could take the cup from her. He took a big sip as his eyes rested on the other sofa. “Aaaaaaaaaw, aren’t they cute?” he whispered with an amused smile.  
Danny came back with two other cups and placed them on the glass coffee table. Now all four of them were looking at the cute sleeping couple.  
The noise and also the smell of fresh coffee woke Jon up. He stretched his hanging arm. That sort of unexpected movement caused Joey to wriggle, moan and smack his lips. He snuggled a bit closer to Jon, rubbing his cheek against his chest.  
This adorable and sweet nuzzle woke Jon up completely. He looked around the room to see that everyone, Andy and his little brother including, were looking at them with a smile that suggested they saw something seriously cute. He made a nervous smile and slowly looked down on his chest to see Joey happily sleeping. Jon tried to lift his other arm from Joey’s shoulders, but that caused another wave of unhappy smacking lips and wriggling. Others were looking at this scene like it was a match of tennis.

“Just five more minuteeees,” sounded Joey pleading and snuggling a little bit more.  
Andy was about to burst out laughing but Donnie quickly placed his hand on her mouth to stop it. She was deeply breathing through her nose to stop the laugh.  
Joey nuzzled Jon’s chest.   
He was just helplessly looking at the sleeping benjamin at that point.  
Joey began to finally wake up,. First he opened one eye and sleepily looked to the room, not noticing anybody. He blinked a few times and raised his head from Jon’s chest, looking at everybody in confusion, when he noticed everyone looking directly at him at last. “Why are you all looking at me?” He said, his voice rough, rubbing his eye with a fist. The remaining three members were laughing silently.  
“And why is my ass hurting?” He said even more confused, as he ran his fingers through his hair.  
Donnie and Jordan weren’t able to maintain themselves anymore and bursted out laughing, Danny was just quietly laughing to himself.   
Joey slowly turned his head to look where he was sleeping, and his eyes met with Jon’s. He had both of his hands in the air to show that he had done nothing.

“JONATHAN?!!!” Joey yelled, terrified leaping up from the sofa to stance looking at his friend. “What did you do to me?!!” he yelled again, as he tried to check the back of his pants. Jon looked even more terrified than Joey.

“Calm down Joe,” Andy was now laughing so much, Donnie had to remove his hand from her mouth.

“Calm down?! You weren’t humped by him, so shut up!” Joey yelled, his voice cracking to falsetto, looking at her, horrified.

“You weren’t humped, you moron. After Donnie with Jordan tried to fit you and Jon to the little kid house Alma has on the garden for her grandkids, you got out and tried to get me to the kiddies pool, because I was laughing at you. You managed to grab me, which was really an accomplishment, cause you were glad to be standing. But when you got me to the pool, you slipped and fell on your ass, taking me with you. Look!” Andy stood up, still laughing, and showed everyone her bruise that was already turning purple.  
Joey looked at it with his head tilted and then looked back to Jon. Donnie was discreetly checking Andy from behind as she was facing Joey, standing right in front of him.

“And if it actually were me, you wouldn’t felt a thing in the morning,” said Jon to his defense, when Joey sat down on the sofa and reached for a coffee. This caused Donnie to have a new laughing fit.

“Didn’t have to know that, bro!” Jordan hid his face into his palms.

“Now just to post the photo,” smiled Donnie mischievously looking at his phone. The fans will be furious about this photo of Jon and Joey! New ships will be bursting into life in no time.

“You do that and you’re dead!” Joey pointed at him with a really serious face and a little bit squinting.

“I think you owe Jon an apology…?” Andy was looking at the youngling with one eyebrow raised and an amused smile on her face. “And you, darling,” she turned to Donnie, who was furiously adding hashtags at the photo on instagram. “Please send me the photo as well,” she smiled mischievously at Donnie afterwards and he gave her a thumb up.

“It was lovely spending the night with you, but I need to get my butt home,” Andy felt a little sad as she was looking at her watch at the time. She liked to spend time with them, they were so down to earth and funny it was hard to leave them.

“That soon?” Jordan looked surprised and a little sad.  
This tore Andy’s heart even more. She stepped from leg to leg and rubbed her hands.

“I’m so sorry guys, but I need to clean the house, cook and all those things before... “ she didn’t had to finish the sentence, as all of the boys made an understanding “Oh,” sound.  
She smiled to cover up her sadness and grabbed her backpack and boots, which were sitting next to the sofa. “Anybody need a lift?” she looked at them, but everyone was shaking their heads.  
´Yeah, they have probably better things to do themselves,´ she said to herself as she shrugged her shoulders. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow at the rehearsal,” she waved at them with a tiny smile. Donnie waved back while looking at her, the others waved too.  
Andy went out the doors and to her car. She put the backpack on the passenger seat and fell back in the driver seat, looking at the house for a minute or two. Lot of things were running through her head, but she forced them out, started the car and began her route home.

“Did she really just left with my jacket on?” asked Jordan after the door closed, looking at the others with a small victorious smirk. The answer was given to him when Donnie kicked him to shut up.


	5. First time for everything

Andy left home early next day for the studio. She had a class in the morning that went by so quick, she felt they only just started when the class was already ending. Henry spent some time with her in the hall, talking about everything that happened that weekend.

“So you were technically sleeping on two guys? Well, I thought you are a good and faithful girl, but this…” Henry was full on laughing and shaking his head. Andy waited a few seconds and then threw a towel to his face.

“I told you, I don't know how I got there. I just felt sleepy and then in the morning...” she mumbled a bit angrily. This was not a theme to be laughing at, she could get into serious trouble. “Come on! It’s not funny at all!” she threw her hands around and then rested them on her hips, leaning with her back on the mirror. Henry was slowly calming down while breathing deeply.

“You know what’s the worst? That I’m having much more fun with them, than with my boyfriend,” she sighed, rubbed her face, ran her fingers through her hair and looked at him, worried.

“Honey, Steven is an ass,” started Henry when he put his hands on her shoulders, sign that he was going to get really honest, and Andy made an annoyed face on him. “Don’t look at me like that,” he continued, “ you know it’s true. And I don’t blame you for having more fun with those guys. Have you seen the abs on them?!” he chuckled and looked at her with his eyebrows raised. Andy was looking down at her feet. She was feeling so much guilt for wanting to spend more time with The Kids than with Steven. Not only they were fun to be around, but they supported her and she felt appreciated with them. She loved Steven to death, but sometimes she just wanted to run away and leave everything behind her.

“Come on, cheer up baby!” Henry lifted her head with his finger.  
She looked him in the eyes, he was smiling with his crazy and happy smile like only he could do and it was contagious. She made an effort to smile too, but it was a weak one.   
“At least you are trying,” he whispered and hugged her tightly, rubbing her back to calm her down.   
She buried her head into his chest when she started to feel a little anxious, but Henry always became aware of that and calmed her down every way he could.   
They were standing there for a few minutes until Henry let go of her. “I need to get going, will you be okay?” he looked at her a bit concerned.

“I’ll be fine. Got the stage measurement from Ryan yesterday, so I’ll be playing with my tape,” she patted him on his chest to let him know she will be okay.

“Don’t enjoy yourself too much,” he laughed, walking toward the door.   
Andy waved at him and waited for the door to close behind him. She took few deep breaths with her eyes closed, shook here hands alongside her body and stretched her neck, that always helped her from those feelings.  
She went to the radio and turned on the music again, got the Scotch tape and the picture with measurements that Ryan sent her.  
She was switching her attention between the picture and the hall to figure out where to stick the tape exactly to represent the stage. She was tapping with her leg to the rhythm of the music, sometimes made a move or two to dance.

After few minutes she finally put the first piece of the Scotch tape on the floor, then another and another, until she formed a somewhat circle in front of the mirror. She began to whistle to the song playing, absolutely sinking into the music, not giving any attention to her surroundings.

“Hey beauty, whatcha doing?” sounded behind her back, as she was trying to figure out the next part of the stage.  
Andy got startled and squealed a bit. She quickly turned around to see who scared her. Donnie stood there, rubbing his ear, probably the squeal caught him a little unprepared, but he was still smiling. He was wearing a white tank top revealing his muscular arms and a coat of arms tattoo on his left shoulder, and black loose sweatpants. He was all ready to rehearse.

“I’m so so so sorry, but you scared me. You can’t do that to me!” squeaked Andy with a little bit higher voice, still shocked looking at him.

“You could sing Jordan’s parts with that voice, you know,” Donnie chuckled while shaking his head a bit to stop his ears from ringing. He surely didn’t expect such a response from her. “Okay, let’s start again. What are you working on?” he asked after a moment curiously and smiled at her.

“Just making a mockup of the stage on the floor, for training purposes. So, you know, you would not come flying off the stage and into the crowd,” Andy showed him the picture she printed yesterday. “In fact… a little help would be nice,” she looked at him with an inviting smile while handing him the Scotch tape.

“I’m sure the fans would love to be holding us above their heads,” Donnie winked at her, put his snapback to front and took the tape from her hand. “Let’s see…” he put the picture down on the ground and looked at it, whilst scratching his chin. Andy went to get her measuring tape and they began to form a stage on the floor.  
They got into an argument few times over how long should this or that piece of the stage be, or in what direction should they go next. Most of the times Donnie had to agree, that she was right, and as a revenge for not listening to her, Andy stuck a piece of tape on his clothes. First, she formed two X on his chest right around where his nipples were, then she stuck some on his pants and back.   
But there were times when Andy was wrong and Donnie couldn’t pass on the opportunity to get his revenge, so she had few pieces on her as well. The first one landed on her lower back. She was thankful that she wore a long tank top that day. Next one was stuck on her arm and a few pieces made it to her butt and legs.  
It took some time to finally form the shape of the stage, as they were laughing through the whole process, sticking more and more pieces of the Scotch tape on each other and provoking. Andy was avoiding areas of no clothes on Donnie, because she didn’t want to depilate him when they’ll be removing the tape, but Donnie wasn’t that benevolent to her. Her hands and one leg ended up covered in little pieces of the tape. 

Donnie tore another piece of the tape and looked at Andy with a mischievous smile on his face, after she just provoked him again. Andy froze on the place where she stand, hoping he was not about to do what she thought.  
“You know, I think, sometimes you talk just a little bit too much,” he said slowly, looking her straight to the eyes.

“You don’t want to do that…” Andy was taking one step at a time backwards as Donnie was moving towards her with bigger and bigger smile.

“Oh I think I do!” he said resolutely, making another big step toward her.

“You do that and you’re dead, Wahlberg,” she said pointing at him, but her progress backwards was stopped by a wall. In a second, Donnie made a leap to her. Unfortunately for him, Andy’s reflexes were pretty good, so she made a jump to the side to escape him and ran for the door. She got about halfway to it, when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards.

“No, no, no, no. NO!” Andy tried to escape him, but Donnie pulled her closer to him. He had to lift her for a moment as she was getting really hard to hold. She bravely fought a fight she knew she couldn’t win, but still tried to get away. Now both of them were laughing while doing that. Donnie finally got control of her arms and tried to put the piece of the tape on her mouth. She bent forward as her last attempt to escape the fate Donnie laid out for her.

“Hi Annie,” said Joey cheerfully, when he opened the door and went in, Danny and Jon following and Jordan was at the back talking with someone, but Andy couldn't see with who.  
“We would like you to meet…” Joey didn’t finish his sentence as he paused in a surprise of the view in front of him.  
Danny crashed into him as he was talking to Jon, not looking where he was going. Their eyes met and all of them stared at each other for a minute, trying to figure out what exactly happened in the room before they arrived. Donnie made use of the moment, when Andy didn’t fight him, and finally put the last tape on her mouth. That woke her up and she hit him in the ribs with her elbow to shook him off her back.

“I swear this is not what is normally happening,” said Jordan with a little chuckle to the stranger, put his arm on the stranger’s shoulder and leaned on him. “She is usually pretty normal,” added with a little smirk and winked at Annie.  
Andy took a look at the stranger, he was as tall as Jordan, head full of dark hair and brown eyes. He had a white shirt on with black trousers and held his jacket in his hand, he looked a bit like a businessman. He was smiling amusedly looking at her as she began to realize how she must look with all the tape on her body and clothes. She slowly took off the tape on her mouth and stuck it on Donnie’s arm choosing the hairiest place as a revenge.

“Nice to finally meet you, I’m Ryan,” he chuckled and extended his hand to her.

“Same here. Andrea, but call me Andy,” she smiled and shook his hand, his grip was firm but gentle. “Or Annie,” added Joey when he walked around Ryan and went to check the stage.

“I’m sorry about this, we got little...carried away while trying to form a stage on the floor,” she laughed and began to slowly tear down the tape from her skin.

“Clearly,” whispered Danny with a little laugh when he walked around her and tore the piece of tape on her butt off to help her, then he went with rest of the guys check the ‘stage’.

“I can tell why are they so excited to work with you, should have come sooner,” Ryan tore the last piece of tape off her arm and handed it to her. She looked at him with a little frown, trying to figure out how exactly he meant it.

“As to why I’m here,” Ryan cleared his throat and continued as he was looking around the room. Andy meanwhile got all the tape off her and stuck it into a little ball. She saw The Kids with the corner of her eye gathered around Donnie checking the ‘damage’ that she made.  
“We have a reporter from a TV show coming here to make an interview with the guys about their comeback and how they feel and so on. I guess they will want to shoot some of the rehearsal and how are they preparing for The Today Show if you don’t mind,” Ryan smiled showing his pure white perfect teeth, he gave her the impression of being nice and fair guy and also he looked really good. Few months ago she wouldn’t even dream being around that many handsome and kind men.

“Not a problem with me, I’ll try my best to not get in their way,” she nodded as she knew that they would probably be all over the Kids not wanting anyone extra to show up.

“That’s not the case, for you it will be a normal rehearsal,” Ryan smiled. In that moment a painful yelp sounded in the room. Ryan and Andy turned around to see where it originated from. “Well, as normal as it could get with them,” added Ryan shaking his head and rubbing his forehead, Jordan was holding the piece of tape full of Donnie’s hair looking at it.  
“You son of a fuck!” Donnie yelped while massaging the bald spot on his arm looking at Jordan with reproach.

“You better get them working before they kill each other,” Ryan looked at Annie with one of his eyebrows raised and hands crossed on his chest. Andy sighed and nodded.

“You can stay here and take a seat on the bench, or you can retreat to my office,” she smiled at him, nodding in the direction of some benches in the corner of the dance hall, and took off her jacket before going to Kids. Ryan just waved his hand, that he’s going to be okay on the bench and went to sit down.  
When Andy got to them, Donnie and Jordan were already pushing each other in their chests, and others were laughing at them, as they were acting like childs.  
“We should get to work before…” Andy didn’t even bother to finish the sentence, because she saw that nobody paid her any attention, they were busy watching Donnie and Jordan play fight. Only Ryan was looking at her, interested in what she is going to do with them.   
Andy rested her hands on her hips and started frowning. She tried to talk to them few more times, but when it had no effect on them she gave up, put two fingers in her mouth and whistle really loud.  
All of them stopped what they were doing and covered their ears. Jon looked at her with respect at her imagination of getting their attention. They knew her as the small and giggly girl, but she started to show that if she wants something, she will definitely get it any way possible. Donnie was holding Jordan in a chokehold with one hand around his neck and the other was in Jordan’s hair messing it up, both of them now looking at Andy.

“Now, that I finally got your undying attention…” she smiled triumphantly and looked at all of them  
They were staring at her, only Jon was smiling.   
“We have some time before your interview and we still have one routine to master, soooo….” she said while stretching her hands above her head. The Kids were still staring at her, but when she looked at them with a little frown, Donnie immediately let go of Jordan and all of them began to stretch.  
“That’s what I like,” she said quietly to herself, smiling. She turned on the music and clapped to get them started.

They had about two hours before the filming crew were due to arrive and Andy made sure the time were put into good use. They ran through the parts of Summertime that they learned in last rehearsal, but almost all of them forgot one or few steps.  
When that was done, the new steps came. Jon was getting frustrated, as he could not coordinate his legs.   
Andy was in front of them, looking at him in the mirror and as he was getting more and more worked up, she gave all of them a pause and went to stand next to him. First, she made him to calm down, she knew how bad it could get when someone is stuck in their head freaking out about almost anything.  
She was slowly making the steps with him beat by beat, making sure he got it all before she ran it with him at full speed.  
Joey got at Andy’s other side doing the steps with them and giving Jon praise when he did good. Danny and Jordan were busy with their phones, only Donnie was watching them, especially Andy as she was taking care of Jon’s nerves with a lot of patience.

That took a lot of time as then Jordan wanted to go through some steps, Donnie too, so they didn’t manage to get to the end, when the filming crew arrived. The interviewer was a young and beautiful woman. Donnie and Jordan quickly checked themselves in the mirror to make sure they looked their best. Jordan had to fix his hair after Donnie attacked him, and they both tuned up their sexyness to impress the lady. First, the crew wanted to shoot some of the dancing they were rehearsing and the lady was pretty adamant, that Andy was dancing amongst them, so they did just that. They didn’t show the whole choreography, just some bits and pieces to get the fans excited for the show. Then the reporter lady wanted to do the interview with Kids.   
They talked about their reunion, how it was going for them and so on.  
Andy went out of their way and stood by the window. She stopped paying attention to the surroundings after the generic questions like ‘What were you doing between then and now’ and ‘How are you coping with the stress’ started. She was on her phone, not really listening to the noise and talk going on in the background. She was biting her lip and twirling her hair that was stuck in a ponytail.

“Sorry to bother you,” sounded in front of Andy and she quickly looked up to see the reporter lady standing right in front of her.

“It’s okay, nothing important here,” Andy smiled a little nervously and looked over the reporter’s shoulder on The Kids now talking with Ryan.

“Would it be possible to make some shots with you and ask you some questions?” the lady smiled at her very cheerfully and a cold wave came over Andy. She stared at her for a moment.

“With me? I’ve never done an interview,” her voice cracked to a higher note and she started to panic a little bit.

“There’s first time for everything and I’m sure the fans would like to know the brave lady that is looking after their favourite band!” the reporter lady quickly grabbed Andy’s hand, before she could do anything, and stood her right next to her in front of the camera. Andy quickly looked at the mirror to make sure she looks at least a bit normal. She was wearing her sport clothes - loose sweatpants, a short t-shirt which was revealing her stomach but had long sleeves.   
The cameraman took few shots from different angles to find the right one and when he was ready he pointed at the lady.

“I’m here now with Andrea Cross, choreographer and dancer, now working with The New Kids On The Block,” she started and Andy stood nervously next to her, trying so hard not to show how scared she was.  
“So how is it working with such a known group?” she turned to Andy and shoved the microphone in front of her.

“It’s good, they are so down to earth so we are having a lot of fun and jokes in rehearsals,” Andy smiled and rubbed her hands together, finally hiding them behind her back, she tried not to look too much to the camera.

“You have been working on the dancing for how long now?” the reporter was still smiling and Andy started to think about that her smile must be screwed on her face very tightly how fake it looked.

“I personally was working on ideas for about a month now, studying their old routines and so. Together we have been rehearsing for two weeks now. There were some pains in the beginning, we had problems of synchronization, but we overcame it. The routines are somewhat a mix of the old brushed with some new moves so I think the fans will be happy,” Andy stepped from one leg to other very subtly, so it won’t show on the camera, and smiled shyly.

“That sounds really promising. Can you show us some bits?” the reporter lady looked at her eagerly and Andy thought for a moment.

“I think it will be better to wait for thursday and let the guys show you the moves themselves,” Andy chuckled and winked at the camera. She began to feel more like herself finally, but still prayed for the interview to end, cause she felt her face getting hotter and hotter.

“Okay, and last question. Who’s the best dancer of them all?” she leaned to her like there were about to share a secret.

“They are all great dancers, some are better than the others but...” Andy leaned very close to the microphone, “...it's Donnie and Jordan, but don’t tell them,” she whispered very quietly and chuckled a bit at the end.

“Well, there you have it. It was nice meeting you and I hope we see you around,” she smiled and Andy made a tiny wave to the camera. The cameraman tilted the camera down from his shoulder and a big relief came over Andy. She took a deep breath and shook her hands to get rid of the tension.  
The reporter lady praised Andy that she did really good for her first interview. They spoke for a little while and she tried to get more information from Andy, but after some time they bid their farewells. When the door closed behind the whole crew, Andy felt like she could finally breathe again, like she surfaced from the water.

“I thought you will sweat a circle under you,” Donnie hugged her around her shoulders with one hand and laughed. All of them gathered around her in a circle, even Ryan came. Andy looked at Jon, who gave her a thumb up that she made it through it.

“I’m really glad you are enjoying my own hell,” she smiled and hit Donnie in the stomach with her palm. Donnie did not expect it, but he made a comedy of it by bending forward like she would hit him with really strong blow.

“You did really good for a first timer,” smiled Jon and patted her on the back.

“And you were funny,” added Jordan with his regular big smile and winked at her. Andy hid her face in her palms.

“Oh god, you were listening…” she mumbled and looked at them through her fingers, she was red and felt even her ears turning red.

“So, who is the best dancer, eh?” asked Joey, his arms crossed on his chest, looking at her very curiously with his baby blue eyes.  
Andy looked at Jon and then Ryan for a rescue from this stupid question. She knew that if this was answered, they will be arguing why that one is the best and they would try to prove that someone else is far better. That was the real reason why she was so hesitant to answer the question and when she did, she whispered. She didn’t want to be the reason of fights in the group.

“Okay, let the lady breathe for a minute,” said Ryan after he saw that Andy could not bare those looks from them any longer, “we have some business things to discuss, so you go back to your dancing and let us talk,” he waved Kids to go away from them.  
Jordan and Donnie made a really annoyed face at him, waited for a bit, but then followed Danny to the ‘tape stage’.

“Thanks,” smiled Andy with a relief and made her way to one of the benches and sat down. Ryan didn’t really need to talk to her but wanted to give her some space from The Kids. He knew how they could be a handful, and knew how much she needs to take a little breather.  
Andy really appreciated the moment of calm. She needed to get her head back together after this and then there was the thing - she really enjoyed looking at the guys dancing alone. Ryan sat down next to her and took out some papers from his briefcase.

“When I have you all to myself for a minute,” said Ryan slowly and when Andy didn't react to him he poked to her ribs. Andy jumped up a little bit because she was dreamingly looking at The Kids. “Can we go through our plans?” he looked at her with his eyebrow lifted, when she finally paid him attention and he held a piece of paper next to his head.

“Yeah, sorry. Go on,” she moved a bit so she could face him. Ryan handed her the piece of paper he held and looked at it over her shoulder. Andy looked at the paper. There was very detailed timeline of what is going on and when. ‘Will this guy plan my showers also?’ she thought for herself while looking at Ryan with the corner of her eye.

“So, the show is on thursday. We are leaving Boston on Wednesday early afternoon. Our driver will pick you up at home and get you to the airport on time, so just be ready with your suitcase at the door. Most of the afternoon is free time, but we have a dinner together in the evening, something to celebrate the comeback, you know,” while he was talking, he was pointing at the lines where the information was written.  
“We have the soundcheck and the rehearsal on thursday morning,” he said, pointing at the next time on paper.

“More like night…. 7am? Why so early?” Andy sighed when she saw the time, she wasn’t exactly an early bird after all and she was sure the guys will want to party after the dinner. 

“Joe said the same thing… And Jordan too,” Ryan chuckled, but hid it under a cough. “Then, the guys will have some interview on radio station, so you will have the afternoon for yourself. I guess someone from the bodyguards will go with you, if you would like to go outside,” he smiled and looked at the list, then nodded when he made sure that this was all.

“Bodyguard? I don’t think that’s necessary,” she looked at him a bit confused.

“You are now famous too, so a little bit caution wouldn’t hurt. All the security guys are kind and I’m sure you’ll like them,” Ryan patted her on the knee and smiled.  
Andy was still thinking that it was a bit too much, but it seemed that she couldn’t argue with Ryan on this.   
“And we are leaving New York on Friday morning,” he finished the itinerary and rubbed his hands together.

“Okay, so we have monday and tuesday to polish everything, and technically today to finish Summertime…. I think it’s doable,” she smiled, when she looked back at the guys.  
Donnie and Joey were trying to correct Jon on steps he did wrong. They were very patient and slowly went through the steps with him, until he finally made it right.  
They were like 5 brothers, that close to each other. Andy was looking at them for few more minutes, then she stood up and went to them to finish what they didn’t manage in time before the filming crew arrived.


	6. The Big Apple

That day of the interview she had to stay late in the dance studio, because she had a meeting with the dancers. It was late in the night when they finally got done with the choreography, even tho it took them way less time than with the Kids, so Andy decided to sleep in her office, where she was discovered by Henry in the morning. She got a lecture by him that sleeping in work is not very healthy and that if she was going to sleep there, they should probably consider to buy a bed here.

The two remaining days were filled with training with fake microphones and dancing with dancers and by the time Tuesday morning came, Andy was somewhat satisfied with how it all looked.  
Throughout the time she was getting more and more nervous and she wasn’t even going on the stage, they were, but the guys seemed comfortable and positive. Maybe Jon started to freak out a little bit so Andy had to calm him and also herself down somehow.

***************

It was Wednesday morning, around 10. The car was supposed to pick her up at 11, so that gave her enough time to re-pack her whole suitcase twice to make sure that everything was in there. Steven made sure he was home that morning to say goodbye and now he was watching her pack the suitcase for the third time.  
“You're packing that pretty dress?” he looked at her with raised eyebrows.  
Andy was hoping he would not notice that, but it was late for that now.

“We are having a dinner this evening, very formal dinner, and that was the best dress I had for that occasion,” she looked at him with a little smile, hoping it won’t turn into another argument. She packed her shoes to go with the dress and tried to close the suitcase.

“I think I seriously overpacked…” she said while throwing herself on top of the suitcase to help it close. Steven was watching her effort for a moment and then helped her close it.  
Andy noticed he was smiling while doing that. “Thank you,” she wiped her forehead and looked at him with a smile.  
These days it was so rare to see him genuinely smiling or having a good time. Andy didn’t know if it was something with work or if he was getting really jealous of her spending the time with New Kids, or something else was going on.

“So, you’re getting back on friday?” said Steven when he sat back down on the bed, while Andy went to the bathroom to change into her travel clothes. She chose loose jeans to be comfortable on the plane, a shirt which was revealing one of her shoulders, blue baseball hat with big B on it and sunglasses. She even packed her favourite jacket, because of the morning rehearsal.

“Yes, I’m not sure at what time, but I let you know in the evening after Ryan will hit me in the head with his very detailed timesheet, which a managed to lose in two days,” she laughed when she came back and looked at him. Maybe it was a mistake to mention another man, because Steven’s smile was gone.  
“I promise I’ll behave. I’ll call you every night and so on so on,” she sat down on his lap astride and hugged him around his neck, “I love you,” she whispered with a smile and kissed him on his lips.  
A loud honk was heard outside their house.  
“Time to leave,” she kissed him again, hoping to wipe that frown and sour look off his face. She jumped up and grabbed her backpack. Steven got her suitcase and they went downstairs. Andy put on her sneakers and they went out.  
The driver was already waiting outside the door, said hello while he quickly grabbed her suitcase and went to the car. When Steven saw the big car he paused for a second, then grabbed her and gave her a really passionate kiss goodbye which made Andy really surprised, that much that her hat fell off. Then he let her go, gave her the hat back and stood between the door waving her goodbye while she stumbled to the car. The driver already opened a door for her and the car seemed empty. She waved one last time to Steven before she got in. She put her backpack down on the ground as she was crouching a bit to fit.

“SURPRISEEEEE!!!”

“OH MY FUCKING GOD!” Andy jumped up and hit the back of her head on the roof of the car.  
All five of them were hiding in the back seat row of the car and now they jumped up and screamed at her which she returned. She rubbed the back of her head and finally sat down.  
“How long have you been hiding there?!” she looked at them with a look full of disbelief.

“About two blocks. Jon was the biggest problem to hide,” laughed Jordan.  
They all took a seat. Jordan and Joey fought over who's going to sit next to Andy. Unfortunately for Jordan, Joey won and took the prized seat with a big victorious smile. Donnie won the seat behind Andy, next him was Jordan, and Jon with Danny took the last row of seats. All of them sat down as the car began to move.

“Soooo…. That was some kiss back there,” Joey started that awkward conversation with a big teasy smile. Andy sank a little deeper into the seat and under the hat. She was starting to go red in the face.  
“Tell us Annie, is he always that passionate?” Joey turned to face her, as Andy was looking straight ahead getting more red every second.  
All of them started teasing her with it, adding various comments about the kiss and their relationship, even Danny joined. Jon respectfully stayed out of this conversation and Donnie was awfully quiet while Andy sank deeper and deeper and her only wish was to jump out from the car and leave.

“Why can we discuss someone else’s relationship? I bet Jordan’s love life is much more interesting,” Andy tried to divert the flow of the conversation elsewhere.

“Yeah… I’d kill to have some,” Jordan mumbled to himself.  
Andy looked at him through the space between hers and Joeys seat, he looked almost sad.

“Come on guys, give her a break,” said Donnie finally and Andy turned around to looked at him a bit in shock.

“Thank you,” she smiled, really surprised he stood up for her to the others who now were completely silent. “At least someone gets what is privacy,” she looked at the others with a frown and the worst face she made belonged to Joey.

“So, was it because of us?” added Donnie with his big and mischievous smile, looking at her. Andy slowly turned to face him and she was frowning even more than on Joey.

“I swear I’m gonna KILL YA!” she shouted out, her voice cracking into a higher note and her Boston accent was very clear at that sentence. She leaped over the top of her seat to get to Donnie and ideally strangle him to death.  
Donnie was covering his head with his hands and laughing at how furious she was trying to get her hands on him while Joey was holding her back by the back of her trousers, one for her not to kill one of the main guys of the group and two for her own safety because the car was moving quite fast.  
This hilarious scene was going on for few minutes during which Jordan almost choked because he was laughing that hard, Danny and Jon were trying so hard not to be there and Joey lost grip of Andy few times, so she almost got to Donnie who was dying of laughter.  
The last time Joey lost his grip was, fortunately for Donnie, in a really tight curve, so Andy landed her butt on Joey’s lap. A shocked expression came over her face and she looked at Joey.

“That's much better,” he smiled and almost purred while he caught her, so she won’t fall completely to the ground.

“Can’t you all act normal for once?” sounded the only voice of reason from back of the car. Jon was looking a bit annoyed, but maybe he masked his nervousness behind it.

“Sorry,” sounded unisono from all five of them. Andy took back her seat, but she managed to slap Donnie on his arm while sitting down to pay him back for his comment.

Rest of the journey to the airport was quiet. Andy was looking outside the window with an earphone in, Donnie was scribbling something in his notepad while sometimes looking at Andy, the others were just quiet or speaking amongst themselves.

“Come on, I didn’t mean to offend you,” said Joey leaning to her when they went through the airport gate and the car headed to the parking lot. Andy woke up from her daydreaming, got the earphone out and turned to look at him.

“You didn’t offend me, I’m just not the type of person to dissect their relationship in front of others,” she smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Well we can always sit down in the hotel room together and slander his face,” Joey did his best girl face and voice, in fact he sounded more like the gayest man alive, he even waved his hands around which made Andy laugh so hard she struggled to breathe.

The car stopped in front of their gate and Jon got to the front of the car. “Sorry bro, that position is taken for a while now,” he patted Joey on his shoulder with a smile and got out of the car. Joey looked at Andy who just shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, nobody said we can’t do a threesome,” Joey laughed and earned a punch to his back by Andy, which made him move a bit. He glanced back at her a little bit surprised and then got out of the car.  
Andy and Donnie were soon the last in the car. Before she got her stuff together, Donnie was already out and she was left there alone, while the driver was getting their suitcases out. Andy crouched to the door and looked out. There were girls standing outside the airport terminal, waving banners they made, leaving a narrow path between which was secured with railing to let them go through it and to the airport. She stood there for a moment looking around in between the doors.  
Most of the banners carried Jordan’s name, but others were represented too. The girls were screaming their lungs off while Joey and Danny were giving away smile after smile, photos and autographs. Jon was just trying to get through the door at the end of the path as quickly as possible.  
Donnie reached his hand to her to help her out of the car. She gladly took it and sort of jumped down from the little height. “Thanks,” she smiled at him and ran her fingers through her hair and put on her hat. She always played with her hair when she started to feel a bit anxious, which was guaranteed by a pile of screaming women around her.

“They don’t bite,” Donnie leaned closer to her and laughed a bit, he patted her on her back and went on, leaving her behind. The screaming got louder and crazier. Andy saw that Jordan was now going through the pile of hands and posters. She got her suitcase from the driver and started to slowly walk towards the crowd. Jon was already inside, safely behind the glass door guarded by two really big men. In that moment Andy felt a sting of envy about his safety. She stopped few steps before the real crowd started, nobody was paying any attention to her but still she felt that a little anxiety was taking over her. Her palms started to get sweaty so she grasped the handle more firmly and took a deep breath.  
Donnie, who now was the last of New Kids out there, looked back at her while he was signing a photo for some girl. He took a picture and then went back to Andy. He stood next to her and put his hand around her shoulders.

“Ladies, pay your undying attention to me for a second please. I have an announcement, ” he almost yelled and raised his other hand to get the attention of everyone around them, the screaming stopped for a moment.

“Really not helping,” Andy whispered to him when every set of eyes were on her and him, the anxiety was now really kicking in.  
Donnie just smiled at her comment and pressed her even more against himself.  
“This is Annie, our choreographer… Or you may know her as our ‘main lady’,” he said calmly but loud for everyone to her him while smiling and looking at all of the women there.  
Andy just stood there and after a moment she convinced herself to at least wave and smile. She just prayed that this theatre is over really soon.

“You know her from the photos and videos I’ve been sneakily posting on Instagram. And if you saw yesterday interview with us on the TV, she was there too!” Donnie continued his speech,

Andy could hear the whispers about her being the one dancing with Jordan side by side and about all the photos Donnie had been posting, Andy probably saw the minor half of it. She felt her face going red and she was starting to feel really hot.  
“She is a bit shy, as you can see, and not used to the love of our BlockNation, so it would be amazing if you could just welcome her to our very big and loving family!” He almost yelled the last bit of the sentence to get them all hyped up and the crowd started to yelling and cheering ‘Annie, Annie’.

“Told ya,” Donnie smiled at Andy and gave her kiss in the hair while rubbing her shoulders.

Andy was still feeling pretty uncomfortable with that many people around her but tried so hard not to let it show on the outside. She was always afraid of showing her fear and feelings, now more than ever, because she knew that this community could make a hell out of her life.

Donnie let her go before him, he sensed the tense and nervosity in her. Andy waved to people as she was slowly walking through the crowd. Some of the ladies were shouting they loved the video of her and Jordan, some of their photos and so on.

She almost got to the glass door leading to the airport terminal, when a girl reached out to her with her phone. “Can you take a picture with me?“ The girl said and Andy turned around in quite a surprise. The girl couldn’t be much older than her, maybe 2 or 3 years older and she was smiling and grinning from ear to ear.

“With me?!” Andy squeaked and looked at the girl with disbelief, but then she realized how it probably looks and quickly smiled. “Are you sure? You have big Donnie Wahlberg right behind me,” she chuckled a bit and the girl’s face lighted up.

“If I could get a picture with both of you, that would be awesome!” she almost screamed and smiled with a big happy smile when Donnie came around.

“Anything for the fans,” he smiled and winked at the girl after which she started to have a little meltdown. Donnie and Andy stood on either side of the girl, Donnie got her phone and took a selfie of the three of them. Even if Andy was feeling extremely uncomfortable she didn’t show anything on her, she was smiling really naturally and even hugged that girl after Donnie did. She learned to be a good actress throughout the years, just put a face on and nobody can see what are you going through or that you are struggling.  
Andy waved one last time to all the people outside and went with her suitcase through the door after the two big guys stood out of her way. The doors closed behind her back, Donnie stayed a little longer outside to please their beloved fans.

She deeply exhaled with her eyes closed and tried to zone out the screams coming in from the outside. It looked like they closed the terminal for them and Andy thanked them in her mind, if those fans were also in here she would probably run away screaming.

“Yoooooou diiiiiiiiid iiiiiiit!!!” the yelling was getting closer and closer and when she opened her eyes, she saw a white smudge that ran into her almost by the light of speed, made her do a few steps back and almost knocking her to the ground.  
Joey hugged her really tight, squeezing every bit of air she had out of her, repeating that she made it through. She tried to hit him few times on the back to let her go until Jordan and Danny finally got their benjamin off her so she could at least breathe.

“You seriously have to stop doing that Joe. I don’t want to end up on the ground next time,” she chuckled when she took a deep breath and looked at him. Joey gave her his best innocent and angelic smile. ‘Seriously, you can’t be mad at him´ Andy thought for herself and gave him a big hug with a smile.

“For one second I thought you will run for it,” smiled Jon, gave her some time to catch a breath and then softly hugged her.

“Wasn’t far from it,” she whispered to him with a little smile and stroke his back.

“But you made it… You made it…. You made it…. Woooohooo Annie!” Jordan somehow got behind her back without her even noticing, he grabbed her hands, pulled them up in the air and was now waving them around while singing the words. Andy could not do anything other than just devotedly smile and Jon was laughing about his brother’s childish behaviour and soon all of them were laughing.

“Hey. Did I miss something?” said Donnie when he finally made it inside and was looking at Jon and Danny almost crying with laughter, Joey leaning on his knees laughing and Jordan who put Andy’s arms finally down and was now hugging her from behind, their arms crossed, both of them smiling like crazy.

“One more minute and you would miss the plane,” Andy winked at him and patted Jordan on his shoulder to let her go.  
He quietly grumbled and hugged her tighter, burying his face to her hair on her neck. She tried it again, but the result was the same.Donnie was now staring Jordan down and was prepared to just rip him off her. Jon, Danny and Joey were standing opposite to them and were prepared to duck incase Donnie would made a sudden movement.  
Andy had another solution to the problem. She just started to make small steps to the security line forcing Jordan to either go with her or finally let go. But every five small steps of hers, Jordan made one bigger to keep up with her, his back bowed butt sticking out, holding onto her like a panther on a gazelle.  
Donnie was looking at them and then he focused on Jordan's behind with his head tilted to the side. It was so tempting to take a run and make a beautiful kick into his butt for what he was doing right at that moment, but in the second Donnie started the plan Jordan let go of Andy and just casually walked next to her with one arm around her shoulders.

Andy made it through the security first with Jon, who took the line next to her, leaving Jordan behind his back fussing something about brotherly love and how he should have let him go first because he’s younger. Jordan and Joey were next. Joey forgot he had keys in his pocket si he had to turned them inside out for the officer checking him.  
When they were done, Donnie and Danny took their turn but by the time they got there only one line was operating because the other officer had gone to lunch break.

Danny let Donnie to go through first. He had to took everything out of his pockets and went through the scanning machine. A loud ‘beep, beep, beep’ sounded.  
“Do you have any metal on you, sir?” asked the officer when he took him back and looked at his clothes. Donnie sighed and unbuckled his belt, he put it in the small basket with his phone and keys. He went through and again a loud ‘beep, beep, beep’ sounded. Donnie came back, now the officer demanded that he took off his shoes go through only in socks.

When the beeping sounded for the third time it caught Andy’s attention, the others were happily chatting away. She first looked around, but soon she understood that the beeping is coming from Donnie in security.

“Can you took off your pants, sir?” said the officer, looking at him rather strictly. Donnie went silent for a minute and looked back at the doors which separated them from the fans.

“Are you kidding me?” he said a bit quietly looking at the officer if he is serious.

“I’m sorry, sir, but those are the rules,” the officer shrugged his shoulders.

Donnie sighed and looked around for one more time before he started to unzip his pants and pulling them down. Andy was holding down her laugh and nudged Jon with her elbow, nodding in Donnie’s direction. Jon looked what she was it was about and when he saw Donnie went through the scanning machine only in his boxers and shirt he bursted out laughing a bit. Donnie looked at him a made a face that was saying ‘Yeah. yeah, very funny’ and whined when the beep came on again.

“Do you have any metal in your body, sir? Like joints,” said the officer while looking at him.

“Excuse me?! I’m not THAT old!” he said with a louder voice and earned a big frown from the officer for it. He turned around to go through the machine again, but then he saw Danny holding his keys, which were swinging now by the strap and he was full on laughing.

“If I had to pull my pants down, so will you!” Donnie yelled and ran to him, grasped Danny by his trousers and tried to pull them down. Danny fighted him as hard as he could, he tried escaping few times but it only ended up in him bending over Donnie so he had no chance to pull the pants down.  
The security officer stared at them for a minute or two before sharply inhaling.

“Okaaay, this is not going to end well,” said Andy, she pushed Jordan and Joey away, as they were standing right in front of her, away and quickly ran to the officer to stop him before he arrested two fifths of the reunited group. She stood up in front of him and smiled very kindly. The officer looked down at her since he was much bigger and taller than her and crossed his arms on his chest.  
“Hi officer...” she said and focused on the tag on the man’s chest. “...Connor. I’m soooo sorry about those guys. You know the group New Kids On The Block?” She looked at him with a big, kind and a little bit flirty smile. The officer frowned at her but partially nodded that he knew who she was talking about.  
“Well, those two,” she turned around and pointed at them, not in a very good moment because Danny’s pants were down that much that he showed everyone the back of his boxers and they were still fighting. Andy rubbed her face with her palm, looked at the officer and nervously giggled.  
“I think they are just a little bit craaazyyy,” she did a little circle next to her temple with her finger a whistled a bit. The officer took another look at the couple.

“Okay, but you have to settle them down lady!” he said with a firm tone that made Andy a little bit smaller, but she happily nodded and the officer let her through to get to them. Andy went to the two still fighting.  
She stood there for a second tapping her foot hoping they would notice her and stop, but that obviously didn't happened. Finally she had enough, reached for the two of them and pulled them by their ears up.

“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” yelped Donnie and Danny and looked at her really surprised.

“If you two could stop fighting for a minute and get your asses through the security, it would be amazing!” she whispered to the with a strict voice to let both of them know she is not playing around, she was even frowning at them which was a first. She stared them down one more time, let go of them and went back.

“She is really pissed off,” whispered Danny, when he leaned to Donnie, as they were looking behind her.

“Yeah…” said Donnie and his look slid off her head, over her back and down to Andy’s behind. “But it was really hot,” he added with a devilish smile, winked at Danny who just shook his head.

“I think they will be nice now,” Andy smiled when she passed by the security guard and went to others. Jordan took breath to praise on her negotiating skills but she just grabbed her suitcase and went on, leaving all of them behind her.

‘If this is how it’s gonna be, I better prepare my nerves,’ she thought for herself on the way.

***************

Soon all of them boarded their private plane. Andy was was the first one to step on the plane, Danny was keeping his distance from her as he was still shocked about earlier. That sweet and innocent girl had some fire in her after all.

She went to the cabin for passengers and saw four seats together, facing together on one side, two other across the aisle, at the back there were some single seats. Andy picked one seats from the two facing together, so she could look out the window and didn’t have too many people around to feel trapped, it was enough that she was on a plane from which she could not escape.  
Jon was right behind her back and with a very big smile given to the others behind chose the seat opposite her. He helped Andy get her backpack in the container above the seat and then both of them sat down, leaving the others to their own conversation.

She tried not to look at Jon directly but still she looked at him while he was busy reading his newspaper. He was always the quiet one from the group, not joining the conversation when he didn’t want to and not forcing others to it. She loved that about him, they could sit next to each other, didn’t say a word but still it wasn’t awkward. She felt like she could say anything to him and he would always have her back and help her when she needed. She took a deep breath and smiled, Jon looked at her.

“What?” he looked at her a bit bewildered.

“Nothing,” she shook his head, waved her hand and took her turn to look out the window.

“Nervous?” like she thought, he was like Henry, always picking up when something was happening. Maybe something like a sixth sense. She took a minute before turning back to him. She sighed.

“Yup… And I’m not even going on stage,” she weakly smiled and rubbed her palms on her knees.

“The guys are used to it. Jordan loves to be on the stage. Me? Sometimes I just look forward to get back behind the scenes,” Jon was looking at the table that was between them. Andy looked at him closely. It didn’t seem he was not looking forward to being back, but she could tell he was nervous about it. She smiled again, how come they were so alike?

“Gentlemen and Lady, please fasten your seatbelts. We are getting ready for take off,” sounded from the board speaker their captain. He then went on with when are their going to land, what weather was currently in New York, but Andy zoned out his voice and other noises around her after the first few sentences.  
She got deep in her thoughts, staring out the window. If this is going to be her life now, spending hours and hours in air, getting swarmed by people, she could not help but wonder, was she really ready for it?

***************

A captain voice snapped her out of her thoughts with loud and clear “Welcome to the Big Apple people”.  
She finally focused on the horizon outside the window and saw the New York skyline.


	7. Table for... uhm... seven?

They met with The Kids bodyguards on the airport in New York after they landed. There were six of them, one for every Kid and one who was some kind of their boss.  
The Kids knew them already from before so everyone introduced his bodyguard to Andy. David, Mark and Timothy, all really big americans, were Donnie’s, Joey’s and Jon’s shadows. Danny was guarded by the only black guy in the group, his name was Nate and he had a really strong australian accent.  
The one assigned to Jordan was called Val and, if Andy understood correctly, his older brother Victor was the boss of all of them. He had to make sure everybody is safe and he got done what was needed to be done.

To Andy’s relieve, Ryan didn’t think that she needed her own personal bodyguard and she was quite happy about it. It was enough that she will be always surrounded by one of the guards or Victor.

Their group now comprised of twelve people, so they had to travel by several cars. Donnie, Joey and their shadows went in one, Danny with Jordan and their guardsmen in second car and the last car was Andy, Jon with Tim and Victor.  
She sat next to Vic, as she learned he liked to be called, and she was feeling much more smaller than she normally did because Vic was even more muscular than Danny and had the height of Jon. Travel to the hotel, where they were staying was calm but long.

Andy and Jon got to the hotel as last, they were the last car leaving the airport and above that they got stuck in New York traffic. Andy almost fell asleep in the car on Vic’s shoulder, so when she finally got out of the car she had to stretch from toes to fingers, standing on her tiptoes.  
Jon, who got out after her, grabbed her hands and while laughing tried to help stretch even more. Vic and Tim helped the two of them with their suitcases inside, where they gave it to the porter to get it in the right room.  
Others were sitting in comfy armchairs and sofas near the reception area, talking with Ryan and one other man, who was sitting on the sofa next to Donnie. He was average looking, his head full of grey and white hair and he had very sincere smile.

“Hey guys,” she smiled and waved to everyone.  
Ryan waved her back, the stranger smiled at her and whispered something to Donnie, who just nodded with a very big smile. Andy squinted her eyes on them.

“Nice of you to finally join us, ladies,” smiled Jordan and Jon gave him a little smack on his head. Andy just gave a little snort at that comment.

“I don’t think you two know each other,” said Donnie when he stood up and looked at Andy and the stranger. “This is Johnny, he’s kind of like my assistant, but most of the time I assist him. I think you two will get along just fine, if you need something you can ask him,” he smiled, Johnny stood up also and shook Andy’s hand above the table and said ‘Hi’.

“So what’s the plan for the afternoon?” she looked around all of them when the introducing was over.

“Eeerm… sleep?” said Jordan like if it was not obvious what they are going to do in their free time and all of them were just halfly nodding their heads.

“You really want to stay in your rooms all afternoon, before the dinner?” Andy looked at them surprised and shook her head, “Let’s at least go to Central park. It’s not that far and we could just walk around for a bit,” she leaned on the back of Joey’s armchair and jumped up excitedly, but she met with blank stares. “Come ooon, if I stay in my room, I’ll go nuts,” she pleaded.

“We could play video games,” noted Donnie looking at her with his eyebrows raised.

Jon stepped from leg to leg and hesitated for a moment, “You know, it’s not a bad idea to get out and stretch a little bit,” he said a little shakily and breathed out when Andy jumped on him, hands around his neck.

“ThankyouthankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!” Andy smiled and hugged him really tight while kissing him on his cheeks. She had to stand on her tiptoes for Jon was the highest one from the group.. Jon just tried to calm that little ball of excitement down, she was like a little dog when you tell him that he is going for walk jumping up and down. He couldn't help but laugh.

Jordan was looking at them, quickly jumped on his feet and stood next to Andy. “I’m going too! A kiss?” he said, smiling, and was straight away reaching out for her to give him a kiss like to Jon.

“Yeah, you wish,” she smiled at him, but then stuck out her tongue and softly pushed him on his chest.

“How come Jon did get one?!” protested Jordan while frowning at her.

“Because he said yes, while you said you wanted to sleep….” Andy winked at him and Jordan huffed folding his arms on his chest. “And he’s special,” added Andy with a smile.

“Heard little brother, I’m special,” repeated Jon after her, in her intonation which made Jordan even more irritated and he leapt on his older brother trying to fight him.   
Andy jumped aside in the last second avoiding being squished between them.  
Jon made a quick process with his younger sibling. He just strangled Jordan and sat him down again, after which Jordan looked like a little angry kid when mum didn’t buy him a toy. Jon decided to milk that moment even more, leaned to Jordan and whispered next to his ear “Speciaaaaaal”. He hissed.  
Jordan’s face went even more red but he didn’t do anything.

“S,o only Jon is coming? Last chance to join us,” Andy looked at them and did the most sad puppy eyes she could do.   
Donnie who was standing right in front of her resisted for a minute, but then he sighed, smiled and threw his hands around. “Fuck it, we are all going,” he said, which made Andy even more happy, so she also jumped around his neck and gave him a hug.

“Why am I the only one who can’t get this kind of behaviour from her?” mumbled Jordan to himself but Andy heard it, so when she let go of Donnie she hugged him too, otherwise she would not hear the end of it. Jordan made the most blissful smile and hugged her so close to him she almost landed on his lap, probably his intention after all.

The last one to persuade, that it was a good idea to go out for a walk, was Victor. But even he caved in after Andy batted her lashes a few times, did her sad eyes and Donnie threw in few bottles of beer.  
They made their trip to the park a bit longer and even saw other places after it. They made a lot of photos, Jon got hold of Andy’s phone and he did few photos secretly and then few group photos with her in the middle and all of them huddled around her on some nice places in the city, or overlooking the city.

************************

After they returned back to the hotel they had about an hour before they were going to the restaurant for dinner.   
Andy had a quick shower and washed her hair so she could style it.  
She changed into a white top and sleeping sweatpants, because she still had some time. The hotel room was normal, it was one room with really big bed, the type you could fit 3 people next to each other. It even had a big TV mounted on the wall right opposite to bed and a table under it. One big window was leading to the main street but she could not hear any noise if it was closed.  
Her suitcase was laying open in the corner of her room, half unpacked as she was searching for clothes. She noticed there were connecting cables hanging from the TV.   
She smiled, put her backpack on the table and got out her notebook which she packed because she had some catching up to do in her paperwork for the studio. The connecting was easy work and soon her desktop was projected on the TV.  
She put on her favorite music and went to the bathroom to dry her hair a little so she could later curle it. She missed the first knock on her door but heard the second louder one when she shut down the blow dryer.

She got to the door and opened it to see Jon standing behind it.

“Hi,” she looked at him a little bit surprised. They were supposed to be meeting downstairs in about half an hour, but Jon was already in his evening suit.   
It was dark blue color with a white shirt under it and a black tie. The suit fitted him like he was born for it. His hair was combed back from his forehead and styled into a neat gentleman´s type. His eyes shone like emeralds under a grey sky when he smiled shyly.  
Andy stared at him with her mouth half open. Jon could have been the shy one in the group, but in this moment, she was sure she would fall for him if he was in her league.   
An awkward silence fell and Jon, stepping for one leg to the other, forced Andy to wake up and quickly close her mouth, giving him an apologetic smile.  
“Sorry, it’s just…. You look really good,” she said with a guilty smile, stepped aside and let him inside.

“Thank you, I hope I don't bother you,” he said hesitantly and went in.

“Absolutely not, just slowly getting ready,” she waved her hand and sat down on the chair by the table, where the curling iron was warming up.  
Jon took a spot on the bed and looked around her room, soon he noticed the music and looked at her notebook.

“I see you came prepared,” he chuckled and pointed at the table, Andy nodded.

“If I feel bored I can work,” she shrugged her shoulders and started to curl her hair piece by piece to create some long curls.

“I hope you won’t,” he smiled.  
As she was working on her hair, Jon noticed something black on her wrists. “You have tattoos?” He asked, his eyebrows so high they could almost touch his hair. He did not notice it while they were rehearsing, even though they saw her in her sports bra only.

“I have some, here and there,” her answer was a bit hesitant. She knew how most of the people felt about tattoos, so she tried to make hers not so apparent.

“Would you show me?” Jon smiled at her really curiously which, honestly, really surprised her. She stared at him, almost burning her hair on the iron.

“Okay, just give me a minute to finish this,” she went back to curling her hair and when she was done, it took about 10 minutes, she sat down next to him on the bed. She held out her hands in front of him showing him both of her wrists. On the left was a little heart with the inscription ‘Mom’, which blended to it. On the right one was the same heart but mirrored and the inscription was ‘Dad’.

“Your parent must mean a lot to you,” he said quietly looking at her hands.

“Yeah. My family is everything to me. They always supported everything I did. My dad went to every dance recital I had as a child. They both worked hard so I could do the things I love,” she smiled a little and when Jon looked at her he could see the sadness in her a little bit watery eyes. He looked back at her wrists, on the right one there was something that looked like a sound wave under the heart.

“What is that?” He asked carefully and softly touched it with his fingers. Andy looked at it for a moment and she deeply signed.

“It's a sound wave of my dad's voice saying ‘I love you darling’. It was in the last message he left me in my voicemail,” her voice cracked at the end of the sentence. In that moment, Jon knew he struck somewhere very painful for her as she wiped away tear that fell from her eye.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked,” he whispered after he hugged and stroke her back and shoulders. Andy hid in his embrace as she felt safe in there but then pulled away.

“It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong,” she smiled at him and caressed his cheek. She was worried he could turned it onto himself and beat himself with it.

“Well I have one more but I would have to get my shirt off,” she hid her sadness in laugh, like always, and as she expected Jon’s face turned red. She patted him on his knee with a laugh and went to the bathroom to get her makeup on and put on her dress. She took her time to look good and to let Jon calm down after her a bit bad joke on him.

“Could you help me with the zipper, please?” Andy called from the bathroom and Jon went to see what he can help with. It was not only a zipper but a little button behind her neck also but he managed to do it all. She turned around and thanked him, but Jon stood there frozen at how gorgeous she looked. The dress was dark purple color, had a loose skirt so it wasn't tight on her hips but on her waist and it complimented her slim and sporty figure with the neckline where she had more than enough to show. It had long lace sleeves and it was pretty much backless.  
Her make-up was on point, thanks to her experience doing it for several dance performances, not too much but enough to hide her small imperfections. Her eyes were surrounded by a professional soft smokey style, mixture of black and blue. Her lips was now a darkish pink color as she used a lipstick.  
Jon also noticed that she was just a little bit higher than he was used to, only a few centimeters. That was because she already had her boots on.

“You look gorgeous,” Jon finally found words and looked at her from head to toes. Andy blushed and looked at the floor, she wasn’t used to compliments, because Steven wasn’t the type to give them often.

“Can I ask you for something?” Andy looked at him with a really worried look, as she held onto the doorframe, Jon just quietly nodded. “Could you make sure that I won't fall on my face? I’m really not used to wearing heels, I’m more comfortable in sneakers, but i figured that I had to have them for tonight,” she looked a bit anxious and looked at her boots. They were pretty and very comfortable but she was really unsure in them.

“Anything for you, my lady,” he smiled and kissed the top of her hand like a real gentleman and Andy tried to do a little curtsey, while laughing. Andy put on her favourite long earrings with colorful feathers and her silver necklace that she got from Steven for one of their anniversary. She then grabbed her purse, stuffed few essentials and something else in there, but Jon couldn't see what it was. When they walked out of her room and Andy locked it behind them, he offered her a hand to get more stability, she gladly took it and held onto him like a life buoy for the first few steps, but then she got comfortable and was just casually leaning onto his arm. When they made it downstairs and stepped out from the elevator, everybody was already waiting for them in a little circle. Andy and Jon stopped on the top of three stairs that led to the area where others were waiting.

“Finally, we've been waiting for….” started Joey, who noticed them first as he and Danny, were the only ones facing the elevators, others had backs to it. He stopped in the middle of his sentence, his jaw dropped. Andy’s hair was lightly falling down to her shoulders in loose curls and she looked like a goddess to him because of her make-up.  
Others turned around when Joey stopped talking to see what is going on, only Donnie was looking on his phone not noticing anything. Danny’s eyebrows went up and he started hitting Donnie to get his attention. He looked at Danny to see what's the hustle about but Danny only pointed to the elevators. Donnie looked there, noticing everyone staring with mouth oned, when he saw her his jaw dropped also. Jordan who was drinking at the time he turned around, spilled the water on himself and started coughing. Joey hit him a few times on his back to get him breathing again. They all stared at Andy who was smiling on the top of those stairs. It was the first time they saw her all dolled up, with dress, makeup and everything around, not only regular clothes.

“Why are they all staring?!” Whispered Andy to Jon after s few moments of The Kids just staring at her, scared that something is wrong with her dress or something else. Jon just stood next to her with a big smile. Seeing his best friends speechless like that didn’t occured much.

“Told you that you look beautiful. You should really enjoy this moment, it’s one of those few times when they are completely silent,” whispered Jon back to her with an amused smile. She looked at them still unsure how to feel about them all staring at her. Jon led her down from those three steps so they could join others.

“You look lovely, like an angel in black. Yeah, black angel,” smiled Joey who forced his way through Donnie and Jordan and gave her a soft hug, Andy whispered thanks to him. She was now a little bit taller than usually so it was a nice change to at least partially see over his shoulder. Danny, Ryan and Johnny stayed behind while the ‘lovers’ of the group went to the rescue and were now hiding their laugh at the scene.

“Now I feel bad for not having a suit,” smiled Donnie who had dark jeans, a t-shirt and a vest over it. Jordan standing next to him had white shirt and a dark jeans also but he had a jacket over it. Donnie reached for Andy’s hand and made her do a little twirl in front of them.

“Well at least some of us have more class than others when it comes to formal dinners,” said Jordan with a chuckle, took Andy’s hand from him and kissed her on back of her hand. Donnie stuck out his tongue to let Jordan know how he feels about his comment.

“You have been enchanting this lady for way too long and I'm getting hungry. Can we now go please?!” Said Danny who was getting a bit irritated over his mates always trying to seduce women around them, his hands were folded on his chest and he was even frowning a bit.

“Someone is getting haaaangryyyy,” almost sang Jordan, gave Andy his best sexy smile and look and left for the door earning a big punch to his back from Danny when he walked around him. Donnie offered his arm to Andy so she could have to points of stability with him and Jon on either side of her, which she gladly took and they went for the car.  
This time they were all crammed in one big SUV with Vic on the passenger seat and all eight of them in the back. There was some arguing over who is going to sit where, because it looked like the car didn’t have enough seats, but in the end the all fit even though Jordan and Donnie offered their laps as a seat for Andy. Jon saved her by getting her to the car as first so she was sitting at the far back seat, Jon sat down next to her, Danny in front of her and Joey diagonally, acting like some kinds of bodyguards (wall) to keep Donnie and Jordan at distance because they were getting a bit annoying with their attention.

************************

The dinner was really fancy, way more fancier than Andy was used to. The chef made his appearance by their table to ask how was the food and to meet The Kids in person as it seemed he was a big fan of them. Andy was seated between Danny on one side and Johnny on the other. While The Kids were talking to chef she found out some little bits and pieces about Johnny. He was really funny guys, he knew lots of jokes and stories as he was with Donnie for a long time now. Maybe Donnie were right about them getting along really well.  
After the chef left the group got their desserts and everybody was talking while eating, Andy stayed quiet as she didn’t have much to say to the themes of conversation they were having, so she just listened to them all and smiled.  
After they were finished with the dessert Andy tried to get everybody’s attention as she wanted to say good luck and hand them little lucky charms she got each member. But it didn’t went as good as she hoped, because others were so deep in conversation they just ignored her. She folded her arms in her lap and sighed, mostly to herself. Danny noticed her struggles, took his knife and clinked it on her glass of water.  
Suddenly all head turned to her making her face go a little red. She smiled at Danny and thanked him in whispers, he just nodded his head at her.

“Well, tomorrow is the TV show and I would like to say that I'm really honored that you took me with you on this journey,” she started with a smile but soon realized that it sounds a little bit too formal and really cheesy for her liking. She frowned a little and cleared her throat, thinking what to do next.  
“Well, to get to where I’m going with this…. I thought that simple ‘Good luck!’ is not enough, soooo I got each of you something special. Call it a lucky charm if you’d like,” she smiled and got her purse from the table and put it in her lap so no one would see what was there. The Kids looked at each other scared, they didn’t think about getting her something as a thank you.

“As you helped me, Danny, you will get yours first,” she smiled and handed him a small pouch. Danny touched the pouch, it seemed that it was made of some kind of really soft leather. He opened it and reached inside with two fingers, it was that small he couldn’t fit more there, and he pulled a guitar pick from it. Andy saw all of them stretching their necks to see what he got from her. The pick was pure green, on one side was a little shamrock and when Danny turned it in his fingers the other side was signed by his favourite basketball player from Celtics. He lifted his head and looked at her with an look full of disbelief and mouthed ‘How?’.  
“Well I know you all love Celtics, I'm more of a Bruins girl myself but that doesn’t matter. You love to play your guitar so I thought this would suit you the best. And for the signature… I had a little help,” she smiled and winked at Ryan.

“Thank you,” he smiled with his big and sincere smile and gave her a hug, then he finally showed the others what he got. Donnie whistled when he saw the signature.

“Who’s next?!” Joey almost jumped on his chair up, he was that excited for the next gift. Other guests in the restaurant began to look to their table to see what is going on.

“Wait your turn. Jon, you helped me today a lot so here's something for you,” she smiled and handed him his small leather pouch and after that handed one to Joey too because that poor fella could not hold his excitement any longer. They peeked inside at the same time and took out their gifts. Jon looked a little confused when he held a four-leaf clover, all bronze and shining aa charm for a phone.  
Joey next to him was holding another charm for a phone but his was a small furry paw. They both exchanged a very confused look and then looked at Andy with their eyebrows raised.

“My bad, sorry,” she smiled as the situation was getting awkward, reached out for their gifts and simply exchanged them. Now Joey was holding a four-leaf clover and Jon the small furry paw.

“White rabbit paw, you know, for good luck and you can rub it if you feel nervous,” she nodded towards Jon and smiled. At first she couldn’t figure out what to get these two but then she saw these charms in a shop that was it.

“Thank you,” he stood up and gave her a big hug. Andy chuckled and patted him on his back.

“And a four-leaf clover for you, Mr. Irish,” she chuckled when Joey was closely examining his charm and then gave her a big and wide smile when he went to hug her.

“And now for you two,” she pointed at Jordan and Donnie who were sitting next to each other and talking at the time. When they noticed they were being talked to, both of them fell silent and looked at her expecting what she would do.

“I hope you’ll like it,” she smiled really nervously, she totally forgot about trying to hide it as she felt like in a family circle. She knew how picky these two can be, but hoped that they would not throw it on her head. First she handed the pouch to Jordan, who eagerly and quickly opened it to take out a bracelet made of many shiny black beads. It shone in the dim light of the restaurant so it looked like there was glitter. Jordan immediately slipped it on his wrist and looked at it closer, then went to her with a big smile and gave her a hug.

“It’s perfect,” he whispered to her and kissed on her cheek, which made Andy blush, and went to sit down again.

It took her a minute to gather herself again but then she looked at Donnie. “Last but not least,” she smiled handed him his pouch, she had to lean across the table because donnie was sitting directly across from her.

“Thank you,” he smiled when he got the pouch and slowly opened it to keep others in suspense to what his gift would be. He did it that slowly that it made Joey yell “Open it already!!” which earned more confused and some angry looks from other guests. Donnie took out a long silver necklace with a little pendant. He took it in his hand and softly ran over the pendant with his finger. When he looked at the other side of the pendant he saw his whole initials written there. He smiled.  
Just that simple smile from him made Andy very happy and butterflies started to fly in her stomach, in fact she felt more happy about it than with all the guys combined. It threw her back to the ‘old days’ when she and her friends were all big fans of the band and she was proud to call herself a Donnie’s girl. Maybe the fangirl in her didn’t go away, she was hidden all the time and now when she finally met them in person and could have them for herself all the time it came back up.  
He stood up and went around the table to get to her. Andy stood up also, Johnny even helped her to push her chair away. With the heels she was taller so now her nose was somewhere around his chin and not neck anymore, but she had to still look up to look him in the eyes when he came to her. He hugged her with a big smile and Andy thought for herself, that this was really the first time he genuinely hugged her by himself, she didn’t have to do anything just embrace the soft but really strong hug. She wrapped her arms around his waist, discreetly snuggled to his chest and longly breathed in his scent while stroking his back.

“Thank you beauty,” Donnie whispered to her ear and Andy shivered a bit as the hot air hit her neck.

"Want me to get you a room?!" Said Joey with a sarcastic hint in his voice. Donnie realised how long the hug took, but he just made a sour face on Joey while still hugging her, then he kissed Andy in her hair and let her go. Andy sat down again and tried to masked her blushed cheeks with her hair. Donnie gave their benjamin a slap on the head for the inappropriate comment and sat down on his chair.

Rest of the evening went without a single hiccup, the guys behaved and Andy enjoyed the evening filled with stories and jokes from guys and some even from Ryan or Johnny.  
When they got back to the hotel it was completely dark outside, Andy had a shower and changed into her sleeping outfit (white tank top and loose sweatpants). She was just trying the connection between TV and her notebook when someone knocked on her door. When she opened it all of The Kids stood there, looked like they were getting ready to get to bed because all of them had boxers or sweatpants on, some were bare chested some had t-shirt on. Andy was so surprised to see them standing there all smiling she didn't even blush when Donnie was the one without a shirt. It looked like Jon told the others that she had her notebook connected to TV and it was mutually (without even asking her) decided they would spent rest of the evening watching a movie or video on her notebook.  
She stood away to let everyone in and went after them when she closed the door. Donnie imiediatly went for the bed with Joey, Danny respectfully sat down in a chair after he put it next to the bed, Jordan and Jon sat down on the floor by the legs of the bed.

“May I ask you what are you doing here?” Said Andy looking at them, she was leaning with one shoulder on the wall.

“We are here for the movie of course,” Joey was laying on his tummy with head to Jordan and was grinning from ear to ear.

“Forget movies, I have something better,” said Jon who was already going through YouTube to find something to watch, he clicked the touch pad a few times to play a video. In a second a music video for ‘You Got It (The Right Stuff)’ started playing on TV. Andy had to crawl across Donnie’s legs to sit down on between him and Joey. They commented on everything in the video, made fun of each other, Jordan even asked Andy what she thought about the choreography since she was the professional in the room. After that video ended, Jon played another one and when they ran out of music videos Jon played some interviews and appearances that he found.

***********************

Andy caught herself half asleep when Jon played the next video. She yawned and stretched, then woke up Joey by patting his butt.

“Guys… it's time to go to bed, we have to wake up early tomorrow, like really really early,” she yawned again and pushed Donnie’s legs from the bed.

“Come on, I'm already in bed,” he protested and put his legs back. He was laying on his back with hands under his head.

“Yeah, but in mine. You have your own mister,” Andy stuck her tongue out and pushed them off again and them softly shook Jordan’s shoulder to woke him up to get him in his bed too. His head shot up and looked around like he was not the one sleeping. They all protested but Andy defeated them with solid arguments.

“Kiss goodnight?” Turned Jordan around with a smile when he was the last one leaving her room.

“Goodnight,” Andy gave him her sweetest smile and closed the door on him. She was left alone in her room, finally a bit of quiet. She went back to her bed and fell on it hitting her face on the pillow. Tomorrow was going to have very early start and she was tired from all the travelling and sightseeing so it wasn't hard for her to fall asleep quickly.


	8. There always is a problem

“They look like twins, don't they?”

It was around 5 in the morning and all Kids, Andy, Ryan and Johnny were sitting in the hotel restaurant around a big round table. All of them were eating their breakfast. Danny had his plate full of scrambled eggs and vegetables, Donnie was looking around, probably searching for Jon who was the only one absent, and Jordan was constantly yawning. Andy and Joey were sitting next to each other, both had the same blank stare on their faces like they were still sleeping but with their eyes opened, not reacting to anyone or anything around. Ryan even had to pick up Andy’s phone when it started ringing.  
Andy somehow managed to get dressed in the morning, she had beige trousers, t-shirt, jacket on it, only Jordan noticed that it was the one she ‘stole’ on the barbecue party, and a scarf around her neck to keep her warm during the morning rehearsals, but Johnny had to get her out of her room and to the restaurant as she was still half asleep. It was a miracle she had not have her trousers on her head or was still in her pyjamas. She really wasn't a morning person and others notice the resemblance when she was sat down next to Joey, who didn't like this either so Danny was the one who dragged him down.

“A better looking twin, you know,” said Jordan with a smirk. Out of nowhere he was hit on the head with a fresh piece of newspaper and when he looked up rubbing his head Jon was standing above him with a paper plate and four big cups of coffee from Starbucks on it.

“For what?!” Jordan was looking at his older brother with a really hurt expression on his face. Jon raised his eyebrow and gave him a look that said ‘Oh you knoooow’ after which Jordan gave a snort and folded his arms on his chest.

“Guys, it's cute but we have to wake them up, there is a problem we need to solve,” said Ryan with worries in his eyes when he put Andy’s phone back on the table in front of her.

“There always is a problem, it can wait,” said Donnie while leaning across the table to Jon who was handing him his cup of coffee.

“Wanna see a magic trick?” smiled Jon when he put another cup on the table where he was going to sit and now was standing behind Andy. He put a cup in front of her and took off the lid. Andy’s nose twitched and after a moment she took in the smell of her favorite type of Starbucks coffee. She slowly blinked few times and started to be aware of her surroundings, mostly the coffee in front of her.

“CoffeeCoffeeCoffee,” she mumbled really quick, wrapped her fingers around the warm cup and took a deep breath right above it. Donnie almost choked to death on his sip as he started laughing. Andy took a big gulp and blissfully smiled with an ‘Aaaaw’. Then she looked up to see everyone smirking and laughing for themselves, she then looked next to her at Joey who did almost the same which resulted in all occupants of the table dying of laughter. She stared at him for a minute while he had the most blissful smile ever seen, then just shrugged and went back to enjoy her coffee.

Soon after that they were all crammed in one car leaving for the plaza where the show was taking place. Joey growled on anybody who tried to take his cup, Andy was now more awake so she was looking out the window examining the dark streets of early morning New York. Ryan tried to talk to her several times while they were in the car but he was always silenced by either Donnie or Jon, it seemed like they knew she was getting more nervous as they were closing to their location. When they got out of the car, people were already waiting there for The Kids, fans and also journalist and reporters with cameramen. It was complete madness, for Andy the screams of fans were mixing together with questions making a loud cacophony. Vic and others were already waiting for them there to get them safely through the crowd deflecting the attacks of microphones, pictures and pens. The guys were enjoying it, they loved their fans to death. Only Jon was trying to get quickly through and into the safety shadows of the building and Andy very gladly joined him.

They were waiting for the others inside when Ryan made his way to Andy. Firstly he looked at Jon who nodded his head that now would probably be the best time to share the problems. Andy was furiously typing on her phone and sipping the remainder of her coffee, she noticed on the way here she got some messages from Henry.

“Eehm… Andy?” Ryan began carefully the conversation. He had a girlfriend so he knew how angry woman can get when they didn't sleep good or enough.

“Hmm?” Andy hummed in answer while clicking away on her phone, when she was done she took a last sip, threw the cup in the bin and finally payed attention to him.

“Weeee have a little problem,” he smiled and scratched his head.

“Anything I can help with?” Andy put her phone in her pocket after she typed one more message.

“Well… Yeah… You know... “ It looked like Ryan had no clue how to hand this situation to her. For what he knew it was mostly her problem not his.

“Come on, it's not like you're asking her to marry you,” Jon rolled his eyes and patted him on his shoulder.

“Well… Clara called in the morning. She got sick so now we are missing one dancer. So you will have to replace her,” said Ryan with a smile and was prepared to duck in case she would jump on him.

Andy stared at him for a moment. Her brain was still half asleep so it needed more time to process things that he said. “The fuck….?” She looked at him confused.

“You. Stage. Dance,” tried Ryan again now in more simple language and added signs and postures to it for her to completely understand.

Andy froze and stared at him for few more minutes as her brain was processing the whole theater in front of her. “Yeaaaaah, no thanks,” she turned around ready to leave the building, this was definitely not something she signed up for.

“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down, where do you think you’re going?” Jon grabbed her by her hand and turned her around to look at her.

“Jon… You think I’ll go on the stage? I last stood there when I was six. It was a dance recital for the parents! This is freakin’ national television!” It was obvious that Andy started to freak out in a second she realized she could be standing in front of about thousand people and even more watching the broadcast in TV.

“If I can do it, you will make it too. Now go to the wardrobe to have them change the clothes for you and I will pick you up in ten minutes for the rehearsal,” Jon said firmly and looked her straight in the eyes, he clearly showed there was no space for arguing. Andy was dumbfounded by his behaviour, was she really talking to Jon, the quiet and shy one in the group? Because now he acted like he was the manager of the group, not Ryan, he was looking at Jon surprised as well.

“O-Okay,” she stuttered and went in the direction he pointed still looking over her shoulder on Jon mumbling something to herself. The others got inside finally after being released from the claws of their fans outside.

“Everything okay?” Said Danny when he passed visibly puzzled Andy and looked behind at her.

“Now it's perfect. One of your dancers got sick and Andy is going to perform with you now that Jon talked to her,” said Ryan still surprised and all of them looked at Jon.

“She just needed a little guidance,” Jon said like it was nothing and checked his watch to see how much time she has left. He didn't want to talk about it more that was necessary because he himself started to feel a little bit anxious. Others didn't ask, just Donnie was looking at Jon proudly when he wasn't looking at him.

As Jon said he did, he picked her up ten minutes after she left for the wardrobe fitting. She was already back in her clothes trying on shoes and a little old lady sitting on a high chair was working her magic with needle on a black blouse, white shorts were laying on the table next to her. The lady looked at the shoes, she frowned and handed Andy other pair to try on. She liked that one better because she smiled and looked at Jon. “She’s all done, you can take her,” she went back to sewing and Andy looked even more puzzled then before, she felt like this was all a bad dream combined with good.

“Thank you Lucy,” Jon nodded his head and helped Andy get her shoes on.

“And don't be so nervous Annie, you are not going to sing, just do what you love,” the lady, now Andy knew her name was Lucy, smiled at them when they were leaving the room. Andy got into her jacket and looked at Jon while they made their way to the entrance to the stage where everybody was waiting for them.

“She’s pretty strict. And how does she know my name?!” Andy scratched the back of her head and then went through her hair with her fingers. The lady was weird, like crazy weird because she knew almost everything about her, what she likes and mostly who she is before Andy even introduced herself.

“Lucy? Well, you can say she kinda knows everything,” Jon smiled partly for himself and made sure to leave out the part of Donnie and Jordan constantly talking about her.

They went through the ground floor of the building they were in until they reached a long tunnel made of white plastic sheets to shelter those inside. At the end Andy could see two flaps that presumably led to the stage. The guys were talking to each other and Jon had to go get his in ear monitor so Andy was left alone. She could hear the fans going nuts outside even in this very early morning hour. She went to the flaps and slowly pulled one side away and peeked outside. There was light outside already, the sky was mix of grey and black and when she looked closely she saw it was drizzling. The stage was placed on a little square right between two buildings and a main road behind it. She got little worried as they were about to perform right under the sky with no roof over their heads. She just hoped nobody would break a leg, arm or something else on the slippery stage Then her sight went down to the fans. All of them were wearing raincoats of all colours or holding umbrellas in one hand and their banners in the other. Although she was trying to be sneaky and not to be seen some fans when they noticed the flap move started to scream, which made Andy scared so much that she dropped the flap and jumped few step back.

“Mayhem,” sounded behind her back and she looked over her shoulder. Jordan was standing there, one in ear monitor in his ear and the other was hanging around his shoulder down.

“What?” Andy looked at him confused while the crowd was still going crazy.

“It’s mayhem outside,” he smiled and nodded in the direction of the stage. Andy was getting more nervous the more she realized that in few minutes she will be standing in front of the crowd. She bit her lip and looked to the ‘door’ again.

“Come on, it’s not thaaat bad, you already saw that they are pretty nice. And the scream? You’ll get used to it in time,” he lightly put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed them a little bit. Andy was still looking at the temporary door so Jordan forced her to look at him by turning her head with his finger on her chin. She almost lost herself in the hazelnut heaven that was smiling down at her. Jordan saw she was still little shaky and slowly pulled her into a hug. He sneaked one hand under her arm, the other across the shoulder and pressed her against his chest bowing his back so she didn’t have to stand on her tiptoes. Andy had no choice but to put her hands on his shoulder and around his waist, resting her face against his shoulder.  
He had a nice smell, kind of fruity. She deeply breathed in snuggling a little bit closer to him and tried to focus on identifying what kind of fruit it was. At last she concluded that it must had been mango mixed with something else. Even if his embrace was sincere she could feel how tense his body was, she couldn't help but wonder why, but after a moment she forgot about it, well about everything, because the hug felt so good it gave her peace of mind.

“Listen up, everybody!” Someone shouted in the corridor behind them, closer to the building. Andy was forced to let Jordan go as they were supposed to listen to the director of the whole show to tell them the timeline. They both joined the others and as Jordan was leaving her with the other dancers and went to the boys he stroked her back. Andy just managed to shyly smile at him, then she gladly disappeared among the other dancers to hide her red cheeks.

Donnie was strictly eyeing up Jordan as he was leaving Andy and followed him with his sight all the way, until he didn’t stand next to him.

“You know… She has a boyfriend, bro,” whispered Donnie to him leaning a little bit closer. The director was telling them what is going to happen next and what the plan is, so Donnie had to be sneaky to not get yelled at.

“I’m not doing anything wrong, she just needed a little reassurance” whispered Jordan back to him smiling.

“You’re trying to win her over.”  
“No I’m not.”  
“Yes, you are.”  
“Like you’re not doing the same thing.”

“No I’m not!” Shouted Donnie with high pitched voice full of disbelief and looked at Jordan. The director stopped his speech and everyone looked at Donnie whose voice was unmistakable and loud in the corridor. Donnie felt all the eyes on him so he smiled sweetly. “Sorry sir, go on,” he waved his hand on the director who just rolled his eyes and continued, probably thinking something about celebrity manners. Andy peeked out behind one of the dancers to look at those two. They were still debating something but now it was really quiet and she really regretted not being able to read their lips. She tried really hard for a while but then she gave up on it.

First The Kids went for their sound rehearsal. The staff had to make sure that the sound and everything around is in order. The dancers weren’t needed in that part so Andy had a little free time on her hand. Most of the time she was fine left alone doing her own thing but when her nerves started to play the role in her life she needed someone to stand next to her and give her something to think about. She spent it mostly by standing by the door flaps to look at the stage talking with Vic who stood on the other side with the fans. He was supposed to guard the corridor and also oversee his subordinates to guard The Kids but in the time they were talking Andy found out everything about him, his brother and most of his family and managed to talk Johnny, who was lurking around and joined their conversation, into a trip to New York Zoo after the show.

The guys were singing and trying their monitors the whole time Andy spoke with Vic. After Jordan played the piano to try that out, it was time for the dancers to join the rehearsal. The stage was the same shape that Andy drew a week ago in the studio, but it was raised, so that the fans could see from everywhere, there were small steps on each side leading to the backstage where the dancers were supposed to hide when not dancing. They would enter and leave using those steps and Andy just prayed that she would not fall on her face as she was in the middle, right behind Donnie.

The rehearsal went somewhat okay. They had to start again a few times on some songs, because one time Jordan could not hear the music, Jon forgot the steps, probably due to his nervousness, then Donnie was not loud enough on the speakers and, at last, Joey dropped his microphone and somehow broke it during one of the songs. Unfortunately, the rain got stronger during the rehearsal, but that didn’t drove the fans nor The Kids away.  
The staff put a big white tent over the band, while they were changing into their clothes. Lucy turned out to be a lifesaver as she had Andy’s clothes prepared while the rehearsal was on, and when she went to the changing room designated to dancers, she even saw a rack of clothes with her name. It should be noted that the clothes fitted her like a glove.

They all met again in the corridor, rest of the dancers where standing in a little circle talking among themselves, Andy needed a little quiet time for herself. She stood away from all of them and texted back and forth with Henry. She wrote the last message, before every electronic had to be given to Vic, because the start of the show was just minutes away.

Andy felt her hands trembling. She closed her eyes and whispered to herself ‘Everything will be good,’ repeating it a few times.

“They say it helps to picture everyone in front of you naked,” said a deep rumbling voice in front of her. Andy opened her eyes and looked at Danny standing in front of her, wearing a dark suit with white shirt under it. All the guys were wearing something similar to it, Donnie was wearing a vest under his jacket, Jordan had a shirt opened by his neck.

“Yeah, I don’t think that is a good idea,” Andy giggled, when she thought about it, and her cheeks went red. On the stage, she was standing right behind Donnie and Jordan was to her left. It was almost certain that if she does picture everybody naked, like really really naked, she would froze, forget her own choreography ale probably faint like a little fangirl.

“On second thought. Yeah, let’s not do that…” he smiled at her with an all knowing smile after looked over his shoulder on Donnie with Jordan. They were laughing together with Joey in that moment about something.

“Heeey,” Andy lightly hit him on the shoulder and Danny lifted his hands in the air with a laugh, like he didn’t do nor say anything. The director and Vic started to round everybody up near the entrance. When Andy noticed it, she shook her head and frowned at him a little, then went to them. Danny was on her heels with a big amused smile.

“Okay everybody, group prayer,” said Donnie, when he looked around if everyone is there and showed them to make a big circle. They all somehow made it. It was more of an ova, because the bodyguards and musicians joined them too and they have to squish between the walls. Danny grabbed Andy’s hand with a firm grip and she did the same with guitarist on her left side. All heads were bowed and eyes closed while Donnie started with the prayer. He was speaking about how blessed they were for their second chance around in the business, that they were one big family and how this time it will be about having fun.

“Let’s get this!” He shouted excited at the end and reached his hand in the middle of their circle for others to join him. “We are The New Kids on three,” He yelled when everyone’s hand was in the middle and he started counting. When he got to three, everybody threw their hands up and yelled. The Kids gave each other a hug afterwards and high-fived with their bodyguards, while Andy stood among the dancers, giving them last brief before going on stage.

“If you get nervous, look at me. We can be nervous together,” smiled Jon who was the last one to walk on the stage behind the prepared curtain. He gave her a soft hug and Andy was sure she felt him shaking like a little expensive dog. The dancers had a little area right behind the stage, where they could take shelter from the rain and also watch the TV during breaks.

The fans were screaming and chanting when the moderators announced, that the show would start in seconds, and when the curtain went down and revealed the five grown men standing behind it, the real ‘mayhem’, as Jordan would say, broke out. Drizzling changed into a full on rain during the performance and everyone got soaked, guys, dancers, fans and the moderators also.  
Andy got nervous a few times during the performance especially when she felt the camera was aimed at her, or somewhere around her. At those times she always glanced at Jon with a corner of her eye. He was right, if he can do it with his level of panic, she had to do it flawlessly! There was nothing that was going to make her to ruin her dream.

***********************

The performance was a success. The Kids were enjoying their time on the stage, even Jon looked happy to be there with his ‘brothers’ and they made sure that the fans had the best show.  
The last segment of the appearance was a interview with The Kids, which all the dancers, wrapped in big warm towels, and Johnny were watching on the TV backstage. The question were typical so Andy stopped listening about halfway through it., The lady reporter tried to ask them about girlfriends or possible wives, but Donnie and Jordan smartly turned that question against her.

“We’ve got to work with some very talented people. One of them was on stage with us today, if you noticed,” said Donnie with a big smile, once again, he played the role of the leader and talked most of the time.

“I thought I saw a familiar face behind you!” Said the lady reporter with a smile and nodded.

“Yeah, our dear choreographer, Annie Cross, had to take one for the team and get on stage,” laughed Joey with a wink. “Maaaaybe we can try to persuade her to come out,” he yelled and started to hype the crowd to chant her name.  
Hearing her name got Andy’s attention back. She looked up on the TV at the same moment the crowd started to chant her name. Johnny was already handing her a jacket, belonging to one of the guys, to take on instead of the towel.

“You are crazy to think I’m going out there!!!” Her head was furiously shaking from side to side and her voice was cracking as she was slowly backing to the corridor leading into the building.

“You know me, crazy is my second name,” Donnie’s voice sounded next to her ear and she quickly turned around. Now she got backed into a corner with Donnie standing in front of her, cutting off her escape route, and Johnny behind her already getting her hands into the jacket.

“You are going to pay for this, for all of this,” Andy whispered in his direction while Donnie was looking at her with a little smirk.

“Anything for you, beauty,” he gave her a quick kiss on her cheek, which went red in a second. Donnie offered her his arm to hold on to with a little bow and led her out on the stage. Andy stood in front of the guys for the whole duration of the interview, all wrapped up in the jacket, trying to held her smile while answering the questions about her dance studio and working with the guys from the reporters.  
Fortunately for Andy, the interview didn’t take long and after less than half an hour she could shoot out of the stage and into the backstage. The dancer got a little room as a changing room in the building with showers and, as all the dancers were already gone, Andy had the room all to herself. Hot shower, that's what she needed right now to calm down. She didn’t like to be put on the spot with no choice whether to do it or not. Those things really wound her anxiety up the most. She sat down in the shower and let the hot water fall on her face.

The guys stayed longer on the stage to give some autographs and selfies. When she changed into her normal clothes and waited for them in the corridor, they were just coming off the stage. Andy had her hands folded on her chest, tapping her foot on the floor and, what felt worst for Joey, she was frowning really bad.

“I think you’re dead Joe,” leaned Jordan to his friend, when they all stopped in their tracks, looking at the picture of fury itself standing in front of them.

“You still love me, don’t ya?” Joey conjured up the sweetest smile that was in his inventory and spreaded out his hands for a hug, expecting Andy to fall right into his embrace.

“Your pretty smile won’t save you,” she said slowly and didn’t make a step closer to him. Joey stood still for a minute, stepping from leg to leg and then slowly made his way towards her, almost on his tiptoes, and wrapped his long arms around her shoulders, pressing her against his chest, stroking her back and hair.

“You, or anyone of you, do this one more time and I won’t anymore,” her voice sounded really angry and muffled as her head was squished between his arms and chest, but after a moment she slightly smiled.

“We will be careful next time, or at least until you get used to it, won’t we, Joe,” Donnie patted Joey’s shoulders with both of his hands and looked at him with raised eyebrow. Joey started furiously nodding his head with his eyes bigger than ever after he finally let Andy go.

“That would be kind of you,” she nodded.

“Guys, you gotta go change, the interview is in half an hour,” said Ryan sitting in one of the chairs placed around. Joey rolled his eyes, but followed Jordan and Danny into their changing room. When Jon passed, he gave her two thumbs up, because she did fabulously and it was important for him to let her know. Then he disappeared behind the others in the hall.

“Good job with the guys and out there,” smiled Ryan, when they were left alone. His phone suddenly disappeared from his hands and he was standing next to her, looking at her.

“It took a lot of nerves. But I feel like I earned my trip to the Zoo,” she did a winning gesture with her fist. Suddenly, her mood changed and her rage was gone, it was like someone snapped their fingers and the angry woman just disappeared.   
“But thank you, it’s something else to be standing on the stage with them than teaching them safely in the studio,” she smiled a bit shyly at him.

“Can we go now?” Johnny appeared at her side and smiled. Andy thought for herself that she is now surrounded with more men than ever before, and even with her anxiety and shyness she was enjoying it all. Who would have say no to have members of the famous boy band as friends.

“Ready for all those cute animals,” she smiled really excitedly and even jumped up and down a little with clapping her hands. Johnny made a little bow to show her the way to the car. “Oh, we have to make sure to see pandas!” Heard Ryan before she and Johnny left the building to meet Vic by the car.

***********************

The day was nearing its end. Andy was laying on her stomach on the bed in her sort of pyjamas (long sweatpants and a tank top) talking to Johnny, who was comfortably seated in the chair opposite the bed, music lightly playing in the background.  
They spent the whole day walking around the Zoo, seeing their favorite animals, taking crazy pictures, eating ice-cream and talking about anything they could come up with. Andy was never fond of strangers and it was always hard for her to speak or even open up to somebody, but with Johnny, she felt like with her older brother.  
When they finally returned to the hotel, Andy gladly kicked of her shoes, had a shower and slipped into her pyjamas, but Johnny came around to finish their talk.

Around 9 pm a loud knock sounded throughout Andy’s room. Johnny got up to answer the door before Andy could even move on the bed.  
“Hi,” Donnie smiled as soon as the door opened. His smiled slowly faded when he saw Johnny at the door. His look was exactly how he felt, confused. Donnie looked one more time at the number on the door and back to Johnny.

“I…. Well… I must have mistaken the rooms,” he frowned and waved at Johnny. Johnny closed the door and went back to the room.

“What did he want?” Andy looked at him curiously when she finally seated herself on the bed, not laying anymore.

“I guess you,” Johnny shrugged and Andy’s cheeks went a little red, when she realised what he just said. She looked at the door, raised her hands and counted down from five to one. On the count of one they heard a knock again, this time it was more insistent.  
“I’m not going there, he’ll probably hit me for making a joke on him,” Johnny chuckled and stayed seated in his spot. Andy sighed and with some problems due to her legs hurting after the trip went to the door and opened it.

“Ha! I knew that this was not your room!” Donnie pointed at Johnny over her shoulder and laughed.

Andy grabbed his chin and turned his head to face her, she was really tired and it showed on her smile. “You needed something?” Andy raised one eyebrow.

“Yeah,” it looked like this action really took Donnie back and he just stared in her eyes, lost in those blue-grey pools, for a moment before waking up.  
“Yeah,” he repeated and cleared his throat. “We have a little get together in Jordan’s room so if you and your notebook want to join, you are more than welcome,” he winked at her to cover his previous behaviour.

Andy looked back at Johnny who stood up and excused himself from that gathering, he was tired and ready for a really hot date with his bed.  
“Why not, if you help me,” she shrugged and let him into the room to help her with everything needed, even ice-cream which she stashed in the hotel room mini fridge freezer.

Jordan’s room looked just like hers, only he had a little sofa instead of chair. Everyone found their spot in there. Danny and Jon took the sofa, which they turned around to see on the TV. Andy was let on the bed as a honourable quest with Jordan as the bed owner. Donnie stole Jordan’s blanket and put it on the ground for him and Joey to sit on in front of the bed.  
Andy stole one of the big pillows on the bed, curled up on it finding a comfortable position to look at the videos Jon was about to play. Jordan was laying next to her, hands behind his head and legs outstretched on the bed.  
Jon chose a video that, after some adjustment, appeared on the TV. Andy suddenly felt so tired, her head feeling incredibly heavy on the pillow. She had one hand under the pillow and the other folded under her head. The stress and anxiety of the day finally caught up to her. Her eyelids were heavier every time she blinked and after some time she just closed her eyes and listened to the guys talking over each other. It didn’t took long and before the first video ended, she was deep in the land of dreams.

“Any requests?” Jon looked back at Andy after they finished the first video and smiled at the cute little huddle on the bed.

“Is she out already?” Whispered Jordan astonished and looked closer at her.

“She looks so peaceful,” added Joey when he rested his head on the bed behind him. “And cute, like an angel. But she has a devil in her,” he giggled quietly.

***********************

Jordan was the only one awake when the movie Jon put on ended. Andy was calmly breathing next to him on the bed. The clock showed it was already after 2 in the morning. Jordan played with the thought of leaving her sleep in his bed till the morning, but he knew she would not be happy about it.  
Finally he slowly stood up, tiptoed to the other side of the bed, carefully stepping over his friends passed out in their spots, snoring. Jordan slipped his arms under her back and knees and picked her up, quickly pressing her close to his body. She must had been really tired as she just murmured and snuggled closer to his warm chest with her head, holding her fists under her chin. He opened the door with his knee, when he got to it and half closed it afterwards.  
The way to her room was not that long and Andy was like a feather. She was so tiny in his arms, he could hold her all day long.  
Opening the door to her room took quite some time and all of his skills, but he finally managed to press the handle and push them open. Her room was dark, the curtains closed over the windows. Only a tiny ray of the white moonlight shone through the crack, making a light strip on her bed.  
As gently as he picked her up, he lowered her down onto her bedsheets, legs first and then the head, which he carefully laid on the soft pillow. Andy purred from her dream happily, when she felt the soft beddings under her. She hugged the pillow with a little smile.  
Jordan was just about to leave, but her movement stopped him in his tracks. He was afraid to move for he could wake her up and he did not wanted that at all. He looked at her and smiled. Andy looked so peaceful and even more cute and lovely than ever. She rolled onto her side, her face turned to him, and pushed one of her fists under her chin, making it squished a little. Her lips were parted.  
Jordan hesitated for a second, then he sat down on the bed next to her, mesmerised by that view. Slowly, so he would not disturb her, he lowered his torso down onto his side. When she huffed and murmured, he stopped moving and widened his eyes. If she woke up and found him there in her bed, she would probably tore him in pieces. And other Kids will tore those pieces into even smaller parts. But that view had beaten his every worry and most of his common sense.  
A lock of her hair fell onto her nose. She flickered and frowned, as it tickled her. He quickly picked the evil lock and tucked it back behind her ear, caresing the soft hair in the process.

He finally got enough courage and leaned closer to her. Her hair smelled of fresh spruce needles, the fragrance filled his nose and made his head dizzy.  
He lightly nuzzled her cheek. When she didn’t react, he got a little bit braver, leaned to her and kissed her cheekbone longly.  
Surprisingly, she sighed and smiled with and all blissful smile. Jordan quickly retrieved back, horrified of actually waking her up. But she was still in deep sleep, trapped in those sweet dream she probably had.  
He flirted with the fortune once again and leaned closer, now aiming for her lips. However, he was only bold enough to kiss her on the corner of them.  
She ducked, smiled and hid her face into the pillow and murmured “Donnie..”.

Jordan got back into his room in a hurry. He turned on the lights in the room and clapped loudly, waking his four friends abruptly.  
“To your rooms. Now!” He said pretty loudly and annoyed.

Joey sat up quickly, his hair like a raven's nest. “I do not want to go to school!” he said quickly, then blinked a few times. He looked around and properly woke up.

“No need to yell, bro,” growled Danny as he stretched his hands above his head and moved his body trying to get some blood into his numb legs.

“Why so in hurry?” asked Donnie and looked around on the bed. “Where is Andy?”

“She left half an hour ago. And now I need you all to leave too. I need my beauty sleep,” his voice was cracking.

“Okay, okay. Geez, we are leaving,” Danny put his arms above his head in silent excuse. “Let's go guys, our princess is sleepy.”   
Joey and Jon, who was seemingly worried about his younger sibling, left the room. Danny patted Jordan on his shoulder and he too headed into his own room. Donnie was the only one left in the room and he watched Jordan long, till he lifted his gaze and their eyes met.

“What do you want?!” Jordan hissed.  
Donnie just watched him with worry and disbelief. Behind the annoyance of his he could see tears in his friends eyes and he had no idea what came over him or even how to help him, but he knew, something had to happen to him.  
He made a step closer to Jordan, but he stepped back. Donnie did not wanted to push the answer from him, and rather left him alone. Jordan locked the door behind them and fell into his bed, holding his pillows.


	9. I came to pick you up

Andy woke up to the sun lightly touching her face with it’s warm rays coming to the room through the window. She rolled in her bed on her stomach and sighed. The sun was relentless, not giving her any minute more of sleep or going back to her nice dream she had in night.  
She rubbed her face and stretched arms and legs while yawning. Finally, her eyes got unstuck, and she looked around, noticing that she is in her room. She didn’t have a single clue how the hell she got there. The last thing she remembered, was curling up on Jordan’s bed, after she stole one of his big comfy pillows. Someone had to pick her up and carry her here. She dig in her memory to remember what her dream was about. Something like she was a princess and her prince rescued her and kissed her?  
The clock on her bedside table showed it was just 7am, but Andy didn’t feel like sleeping any longer. She rolled out of bed and got into the shower, only to slip into her sports clothes afterwards. Yes, she was that crazy to bring her entire running outfit, consisting of her favourite red tank top, black short leggings and red running boots, with her to New York.   
Morning run with a lot of her favorite music was exactly what she needed after the previous days filled with stress. Just let her mind lose and don’t think about anything.

Andy wasn’t the only one with that idea. The Central park was not far from the hotel, and she remembered the way there from their trip the first day. The sun was shining down at the streets, making the air warmer and it felt more like a summer.  
She let her mind wander free while listening to music. But her thoughts always spiraled to her dream. Deep in her thoughts, she managed to crash into somebody.  
Andy landed on the ground at the impact, which felt like she ran into a brick wall! The ground was filled with little rocks and gravel, that were now stuck in the wound on her scraped right knee.  
“You should watch where…” Andy started her flood of words, when she saw her leg, on behalf of the jerk that made her to go down, but stopped as soon as she saw beady brown eyes looking down at her.

“You know, you ran into me, lady,” Danny smiled and squatted down next to her, looking at her leg.

“Sorry,” her guilty smile said everything. She knew darn well she should have been looking where she was running. Danny helped her to dust most of the gravel off her knees, while Andy was grinning painfully, as it really stung like hell.

“Yeah, we have to get it properly cleaned up,” he frowned at the wound. Andy held onto his hands and he helped her to stand up. She lightly put weight on the leg and made a silent ‘ouch’.

“I can make it by myself. I would not want to ruin your morning also,” she smiled and started walking, well more like limping, in the direction of their hotel. Danny insisted, that he would go with her. He even offered to call a cab, but that was refused by Andy’s dignity. He left her to get to the end of the park on her own. But after they made it behind the first crosswalk right next to the park, he could not look at her wobble anymore. In a matter of seconds Andy, against her will, was hanging on Danny’s shoulder, supporting her head with one of her hand, digging her elbow into his back.  
“I feel like a sack of oats.” she grumbled.

Danny tossed her up and down on his shoulder, making her huff. “You are too light for that. More like a sack of feathers.” he giggled.

***********************

They both sat down by their breakfast table in the hotel restaurant. Andy was glad, that nobody from the group was there yet, they were probably still sleeping. Danny took place on the chair next to her and pulled her leg into his lap asking the staff for a first aid kit. By that moment, Andy gave up on refusing his help, it was clear that he was not about to stop.

‘Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!” She was biting her lip when Danny poured the disinfection on the wound. It felt much worse when he started cleaning it with a gauze.

“What is going on here?!” Donnie came around the table, followed by Jon and they both stood above them. Danny just put on a big plaster, that covered most of her knee and a part of her shin.

“Went for a run and ran into Danny. Quite literally,” she smiled looking up at them. “Please, just let it be,” she whined, as Danny was smoothing down the edges of the white piece, that was now part of her leg, getting too close to the sensitive scraped part.

“Oh, don’t be such a whiny baby. I’m sure you have to be used to some little accidents,” Danny chuckled, slowly putting her leg on the ground when he was done and went to give back the kit to the hotel staff.

“It’s not like I run into a wall everyday,” she murmured for herself when he left. Her leg was looking rather interesting and the range of movement wasn't that great, when she moved it. However, there was no way she was allowed to take the plaster off when Danny was around, she would almost certainly get a long lecture about her utter irresponsibility.

“Will you be okay?” Jon looked really worried, he was like a little ball of nerves.

“Some scrape will not stop me, even if I have to jump around on one leg,” Andy grinned at him. It was enough for him to worry about himself, she didn’t want to add worries about herself to the mix. She lightly touched the plaster and hissed. “Definitely jumping,” she mumbled and sat straight on the chair. Donnie just came back with a few dishes from the breakfast table and laid it out neatly on the table. The selection consisted of scrambled eggs, range of hams and cheeses, butter, on one plate was some fruit and he also brought a basket full of bread.  
Andy reached for a bagel and began preparing her breakfast.  
“What are you guys doing up, anyway? I thought you would be sleeping till pretty late,” she looked at Donnie and Jon curiously, while putting a piece of ham on her bagel.

“Danny likes to do his morning run, you felt that. Me and Jon are okay to get up anytime. Joey and Jordan on the other hands, not so much,” Donnie grinned with his sly smile and bit a big piece from his bagel.

“Yeah, never ever ever EVER woke Joe up before 9. You’ll get eaten alive,” Jon chuckled when he took a part of the scrambled eggs and began to eat.

“And Jordan is the worst. He is literally un-wokable,” added Danny, when he came back from the back room.

“Must be fun getting you all somewhere on time,” Andy chuckled.

“Oh just wait and see,” Donnie laughed and handed Danny a plate he was trying to reach from the other side of the table.

After the breakfast they had to head back into their rooms to pack. Andy excused herself after she was done with the food. She limped her way to the elevator, walking normally on one leg and on tiptoes with the other leg. She waited for the elevator to arrive.

“May I accompany you, beautiful lady?” Sounded behind her. Donnie was smiling from ear to ear. She nodded with a smile and he helped her inside as soon as the door opened.

“You know, I have to thank the unknown knight in his shining armor, who got me to bed last night,” she smiled and looked at him with the corner of her eye. Donnie’s facial expression changed from smiling, into confused and lastly slightly angry one.   
‘Who am I kidding, it was a dream. Must have been Jon or Danny,’ she thought for herself, when she saw that expression and rather focused her sight on the changing numbers on the panel. An unpleasant silence fell on the pair in the elevator. The elevator door opened , but they were not on their floor yet. A man with a large suitcase in his hand got in the elevator with them, hu pushed the number of wanted floor and stood in front of them. The silence got even more awkward than before.  
The man was rocking on his feet and in one moment he turned half around to look at the lovely lady behind him. Andy smiled at him and nodded casually leaning on the railing. He turned back to face the door, but his big case hit Andy’s shin with its sharp corner, right in the scrapped and sensitive spot. She yelped and her leg gave up on her, causing her almost falling to the side if Donnie didn’t catch her. She grabbed her leg hissing, tears filling her eyes.

“Are you serious man?! Couldn’t you be more careful!!!” Donnie started yelling at the man while holding Andy.  
“Don’t you see she’s hurt?! You made it even worse!” He was ready to went to the man, who started backing up before him. Andy managed to stop Donnie from progressing by her hand on his chest, her face filled with pain.  
As soon as the elevator door opened the man ran for it, leaving them inside. Andy hopped on one leg out and leaned on the wall with her palms and forehead, still hissing. Donnie was standing behind her, worried look on his face.

“Are you okay? Want me to get some ice or something else? Maybe call a doctor? Or an ambulance!” The flood of words kept coming from visibly worried Donnie. Andy put her finger up to stop him talking and deeply breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.

“I’m okay,” she whispered after a while and straighten her back. She slowly put her leg down and tried to put some weight on it. She hissed.

“Well, that really doesn’t sound okay,” Donnie frowned.

“Trust me, I’m good,” she smiled and slowly turned around leaning her back on the wall.  
Door next to them opened revealing Joey, standing behind them. He had a white saggy t-shirt and red shorts with little hearts on. His hair was fluffed all around his head, his face looked more tired than usual.

“Guys,” his voice was rough, it was more than probable they woke him up just now. “I’m trying really hard to sleep here,” now his voice was plain spooky. It was blank and felt like he would be able to jump at their throats just to get his beloved silence to sleep. “I don’t care what are you doing, just do it as far as possible from my room,” Joey yawned and stretched so much he stood on his tiptoes.

“Sorry,” a guilty smile appeared on Andy’s face. Joey looked at her and remembered how cute she was, sleeping in the night. All his anger was gone and his face lit up immediately with a sweet smile.  
Andy started limping in the direction of her room, giving Joey a wave for goodbye. Donnie quickly followed her and lended her his arm for support.

“Thank you for your help,” she smiled while opening the door to her room. She turned around in the door, more like hopped around, to see Donnie casually leaning on the doorframe with his shoulder. The worries were mostly gone from his eyes.

“Won’t you invite me inside for a coffee or tea?” He brought out his best sly and mischievous smile he had in him. Andy came closer to him, she had to tilt her head back a little to look him in the eyes.

“Darling, we are not in a love story movie,” her voice got softer than ever and a big smile settled on her lips. “And we have to pack, otherwise Ryan will kill you all,” she lightly patted him on his cheek and Donnie burst out laughing.

“Okay, okay. You got me, I admit it,” he smiled, when he caught a breath. “And I guess asking if you need any help is out of question also?” He looked at her with his eyebrow raised. Andy folded her hands on her chest and looked at him with an all saying face. “Yeah, knew it. Meet you downstairs,” he did finger guns at her and left for his room.

Andy closed the door behind. Oh that sweet sweet silence. She sat down on the corner of her bed and examined her leg again, trying moving it. After a minute or two she just fell on her back into the bed, looking at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and deeply breathed. Spending time with all of them was lovely, but sometimes their presence and actions could be a little bit overwhelming. A memory of Joey smiling at her appeared in front of her eyes.  
She smiled. This guys was like a little ball of joy at times, so emotional and what was on his mind he said immediately. Andy thought about every member of the group, remembering little details she learned and moments they shared. When she got to Donnie and Jordan and to how they acted around her, it was obvious that there was going to be a problem. They were acting like two roosters on one junk yard sometimes. She sighed, got up and rather than thinking about what to do with those two she packed her suitcase, making sure everything is there and she wouldn’t leave anything behind.

***********************

“Let me atleast help you,” pleaded Joey walking next to Andy. She ran into him in the hallway, when she walked out of her room and went to the elevator. Her leg was feeling a little bit better, but still not that better to walk normally.

“I told you, I’m okay,” she laughed. It was the third time he asked her and they weren’t even by the elevator yet! It looked like they were the last one on the floor as in the other rooms the maids were already in full work of cleaning. Joey bowed his head looking at the floor. Andy lasted to the elevator but when they entered it her heart felt so bad for the young fella, she resigned.  
“But you can take it to the taxi for me,” she smiled at him.

“Will be my pleasure my princess,” he really had the sweetest smile of them all. They made it to the reception area, where it looked like everybody was all ready to leave. It was beginning to be a habit of her being the last one to arrive and she hated it. Andy saw Jordan for the first time today. He was standing among the others holding a conversation with Jon. Their eyes met as she was standing above the steps. Andy smiled and waved at him, as he was the first one to notice them, but Jordan looked down at her legs and then quickly away, trying to seem occupied with the discussion.  
Andy was taken back by that. It was not like him to not even nod at her, or do a little smile. She loved his smile, it felt like someone had lit up the room. She was still looking at him, feeling really weird, when she noticed someone walking towards her. Prepared to go to him and ask what’s wrong she took one careful step down the stairs. Before she was able to take another one Danny appeared front of her. She was ready to say hello when he reached his hands towards her.

“Oh hell no! Don’t even think about that, I’m not your handbag!” Andy backed up a step and pointed her index finger at him, frowning.

“You really think you’ll get down those stairs in less than a ten minutes with that?” Danny pointed at her leg and looked at her with his eyebrow raised. He wasn’t laughing but Andy could see his amused laugh in those brown eyes of his.  
“It will be over in a second,” he said, tempting her.

“That’s what she said,” laughed Donnie and earned an annoyed look from Danny.

“I think I can make it, don’t worry,” she stuck her tongue at both of them a began her journey down the stairs, leaving Joey and Danny to help with her suitcase. She walked pretty quick, but on every step she did a little ‘ouch’ and pulled a painful face. In a few seconds, she was standing below the stairs, proud of her accomplishment.  
“Told ya,” Andy winked at Danny, who just shrugged, and continued to their car where Vic was already waiting for them to load into the car.

***********************

It felt like the plane ride home took forever. The weather was mild, but the wind was merciless, so Andy was wearing shorts, due her leg needing air and her favorite hoodie. It was a little bit bigger on her, but she loved to just pull those long sleeves over her hands and bury herself in it.  
She was sitting at the back of the plane in one of those seats standing alone. It wasn’t like there was not any place for her to sit near the guys, but she just needed to be left alone. The trip to New York ended too soon and somehow she didn't like the idea coming back home. As soon as she sat down, she put headphones on her ears and the hood over her head. She leaned her head back to the seat and closed her eyes. Her leg was stretched into the aisle and she was listening to music the whole flight. That way, she missed Joey spilling his drink all over himself so he had to went to the bathroom and change his trousers. And she didn’t saw that Jordan’s sight almost never left her, when no one was watching.  
A hand on her shoulder yanked her out her thoughts. Her eyes flew open and her sight rested on Jon leaning above her. She put her headphones down and looked around. All of them were packing they bags and slowly exiting the plane.

“You gotta get up, we’re home,” he smiled at her and helped her to get on her feet. Andy waited for them all to leave and then limped her way to the exit, letting Jon to lead her out. Donnie was already holding her suitcase when she appeared in the plane door. Thankfully no one was trying to get her on his shoulder, back or into his arms.  
Jon helped her down from the last step and she stretched her back when she finally stood on a solid ground. Joey took notice of her mood not being great so he offered her his shoulder to lean on while walking, leaving his hand on her back. He even supplied her with all the jokes and stories all the way to the security line making her smile from the start. Donnie was pulling her suitcase next to her. Danny looked around him to see where the hell Jordan was, because he wasn’t on his regular place next to Andy. He found him all the way in the back of their little group walking alone. Danny halted until Jordan wasn’t next to him.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” He asked when he saw Jordan’s sour face.

“Nothin’,” was all Jordan answered to him. It was obvious he didn’t want to make any conversation.

“You sure? You look like you have eaten a ton of lemons in the night,” Danny chuckled and looked at his brother from another mother. Jordan didn’t share his sense of humor today.

“Just leave me be, okay?” Jordan sighed and sped up the pace. Danny was looking behind him rather puzzled but left him alone.

They made it through security check easily and soon they were out of the airport with their bodyguards around them and fans scattered around. It was not that bad as they were leaving but some showed up. Vic and others ensured them save passage to their van.

“Hey baby,” sounded next to their group. Andy was laughing to a joke Joey said, still holding onto his shoulder. She looked back towards the voice and her smile froze on her lips. Steven was standing there, smiling at her. She quickly let go of Joey and limped to him.

“Hi, what are you doing here? I thought we would meet at home,” she was really perplexed and gave him a hug. Steven kissed her on her lips, very passionately like when they were leaving for New York.

“I came for you,” he smiled at her and caressed her cheeks with his finger.

“I told you, that I have a ride home, honey,” Andy smiled and hugged him around his waist looking up at him like at angel.

“Well I thought you would appreciate me coming to pick you up,” Steven frowned and looked visibly annoyed by the lack of her enthusiasm.

“No, no! I’m glad you came. Just let me got my suitcase,” Andy smiled to keep him calm. If there was something she didn’t want it was to have a fight in front of the guys. Those were watching the scene half horrified and perplexed at how he had her wrapped around his finger.

“Thank you for helping me,” Andy smiled when she got her suitcase from Donnie. She was just reaching to hug him as he opened his arms, but an irritated cough sounded behind her back. She stopped inches from Donnie, looking at him.

“I’m sorry,” mouthed and stepped back from them. She waved them goodbye and when Joey was coming to her with his arms opened she backed up even more shaking her head. They could see how sad her eyes were. Her head was bowed down when she walked towards Steven, who took the suitcase from her and held her hand.

“What did you do to your leg?”  
“You know, tripped over my own feet.”  
“You’re my clumsy dumsy, aren’t you?”  
“Yeah.”

That was the last conversation that the guys heard. Jordan was already sitting in the car and Donnie had to hug Joey because he was still standing there with his arms opened looking behind Andy with a really really sad face.

“Did you noticed how different she acts around him?” said Danny looking behind the ‘happy’ couple.

“Come on Dan, we have to leave,” Donnie patted his shoulder and they all got to the car.


	10. Clever girl

Two weeks went by like nothing.  
Andy dove right back into work at the studio, because the time after the weekend in New York didn’t go as great at home. In those two weeks her and Steven got into a fight a few times, because he found photos of her and the Kids on her phone. Andy was disgusted that he was snooping through her phone, but he wouldn’t admitted anything. She spent some nights in the office sleeping on the sofa. He apologized when she came back home after she spent some time at her mum’s house.

Andy was occupying her mind with a lot of work, that way she didn’t have to think about the fights and The Kids. She was teaching her own classes, standing in for some ill colleagues and attending Henry’s class of Zumba or strength exercise. Henry began to worry that she will exhaust herself, but it looked like Andy had a secret stash of energy somewhere, because she managed to keep up with everything.

Henry’s class of strength exercises was pretty hardcore, but ‘if you want to be a dancer you have to be prepared to give it everything and push your body to the limits’. Andy heard this sentence a million times from the mouth of her teacher. Throughout the years, after she finished the school, she learned that pushing her body, especially to the limits was helping her coping with all problems. They just dissolved with the tiredness of her body and she could get a clearer mind after a proper workout.  
But this time, even that didn’t work for her.  
Her mood was miserable for the past few days and Henry tried everything in his power to lighten it up, but without any success. He knew more than well that it was Steven bothering her, yet he couldn’t get a word about it from her.

Andy went to her office straight from the class, leaving Henry alone to deal with his students. The door to her office was unlocked. That didn’t surprise her, Henry was even more forgetful than she was.  
While wiping her forehead and neckline from the sweat, she opened the door and went into the room. She heavily fell on her chair and put her tired heavy legs on the corner of the desk. Her face hid in the towel around her neck as she sighed.  
A loud cough, coming from the couch, caught her attention. Her eyes appeared above the edge of the towel, peeking at the guest comfortable sitting on the sofa with leg over leg.

“Danny?” she gasped with surprise, her eyes widened and eyebrows went up. Danny was smiling back at her when he got up from the sofa.

“Hello, stranger,” he chuckled, when he saw how perplexed he got her. Andy slowly stood up and went to him. She hesitated for a second but when Danny opened up his arms, she fell right into his big hug. It was strange how homely this small thing made her feel.

“What are you doing here?” she mumbled into his shoulder, as it seemed like he would not let her go so fast.

“Ryan didn’t call you?” he asked, frowning.

“Shoot. I knew I wanted to call him back,” Andy slapped her forehead. Ryan called her sometime last week, but she was busy that day and then totally forgot about it. Now it was clear why Danny was here.

“We have a meeting at our office and of course you, as our dance mastermind, can’t be missing,” he smiled and patted her shoulder. It was really a surprise for Andy to have one of The Kids appear in her office. She was texting mainly with Joey and sometimes Jon or Donnie texted, but that was about it.

“Close your mouth and get changed, we have to move. We are late already and the car is waiting,” Danny pointed at the door and subtly gave her a push to it. Andy grabbed her bag with clothes and went for the showers.

So a meeting? But what about? Maybe they are going to get rid of her, because they didn’t like her job.  
Or they didn’t like her at all, but she scratched that thought out of her mind. They were too nice to her for that. Were they?  
Or they didn’t like something else about her.

She got out of the shower more confused than she went in. She convinced herself not to care about the meeting until she was sitting in the room with all of them, listening to what they wanted to tell her.  
A memory shot through her mind like a rocket - Jordan avoiding her look however he could. Perhaps he got over anything that was bothering him and she would get a warm welcome from him and everyone else. After those two weeks from hell she surely needed at least Donnie´s famous bear hug.

She got dressed up. It was a pure coincidence she went for her favorite summer dress (mainly red with white and yellow flowers, tight around her waist but loose around her shoulders) and ballerins today. She put a little bit of makeup on her face to look fresh and mainly to hide those dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.  
Danny was already waiting for her in the hall outside of the office with some girls around him asking for an autograph. When the last girl walked off smiling like crazy, clutching a piece of paper in her hand, he finally noticed her standing there.

“You took your sweet time,” he looked at her with one of his eyebrows raised.

“Remember what they say, you can’t hurry beauty,” she smiled and did a little playful twirl.

“Ehm… I’m pretty sure that it’s ‘you can’t hurry love’,” he shrugged and Andy rolled her eyes. Sometimes this guys was not into jokes at all. Danny led her out of the building and went for a big black car with smoky windows. As a real gentleman, he opened the door for her and helped her got in.

“Oh, hi Vic,” she smiled, when she notice a familiar figure on the passenger seat, the driver was unknown to her.

“Hey An, how you doin’? Nothing broken yet?” Vic turned back on his seat to look at her and shook her hand when a hug was not possible.

“You know the drill. Hanging there,” she shrugged and put her seatbelt on. “What about you? Lost your last hair because of them already?” she chuckled and they both simultaneously winked at each other. Danny got in the car and the driver began their route to the office.

***********************

They got to an office building in the center of Boston. It looked like there were at least 30 floors. Andy gulped, when she looked up to the top. She had a fear of heights since she was little. Back then even climbing on a slide made her real problems. Through time she was able to make it bearable but this was one hell of a tall building. Her fingertips began to tingle and she had to take a deep breathe to remain calm.  
Vic led them through the lobby and past security to the elevators. Danny noticed how nervous Andy looked and touched her shoulder.

“Ya okay?” he asked worried.

“I don’t like heights,” she whispered, her sight fixated on the elevator door.

“I see. But maybe the view will get you over that fear,” he smiled, trying to cheer her up.

“You have nothing to worry about, An,” Vic smiled and let her first to the elevator. ‘What a way to save your ass, if it right goes down,’ shot through Andy’s mind, but she went in. There was no way she will be climbing hundreds of steps to get up.

Thankfully they made it to their destination floor in a matter of seconds. The receptionist was a young lady, not much taller than Andy, with blonde hair and playful smile. She led them through the office maze to a big room, flirting with Danny a little bit along the way but her attempts were no good. Danny stepped into the room first, followed by Vic, Andy stayed behind mentally preparing herself for the look from the 20th floor.

“Finally, we thought you got lost. We were ready to send Joey to sniff you out,” laughed Donnie from his chair right next to the door, when he saw Danny. All of them were there, sitting alongside the long table. Ryan was sitting the furthest from the door, in the front of the desk with another man. Jordan and Jon by his right side and Joey took a seat next to them, right opposite the door.

“Yeah, that would be my fault, sorry” Andy smiled a little shyly, when she stopped in the door. All eyes were immediately on her. She was standing between Danny and Vic, both pretty tall, so she looked even smaller than normally. First to stand up was Joey. Andy closed her eyes anticipating a strong blow to her body. When nothing happened she slowly opened one of her eyes. Joey was standing in front of her, big smile on his lips and his baby blue eyes shining like clear sea.

“I hope you won’t leave me hangin’ for a second time in row, young lady,” he chuckled with one of his eyebrows raised and opened up his arms. Andy smiled and shook her head. This time she was the one running into him instead the other way around. Joey gasped at the impact and had to bow down a little bit, Andy put her arms around his neck and let him hug her around the waist, leaving his hands on her back.

“It’s good to see you,” he smiled and his warm breath tickled Andy’s neck as he rested his chin on her shoulder. Maybe she wasn’t here for a reprimand after all. Joey was lightly stroking her back in the embrace and when he saw Donnie getting closer, he snuggled her closer to his chest. Donnie could swear he heard their benjamin even growl at him.

“Could you let others have their welcome too, you Scrooge?” Donnie was tapping his foot on the floor, hands folded on his chest.

“I’m sorry but if I remember correctly, none of you spared a thought for her. Just me, so wait for your turn, big man,” Joey frowned at him and Andy’s chuckled. She mentioned it to Joey that the others were not much in a contact with her and now it turned around to bite her in the butt. He finally let her go, so Jon could welcome her also.  
Then it was finally Donnie’s turn for a hug. Not that Joey’s or Jon’s hug was a bad one, but Donnie, he had the special type of embrace. Calming, warming, welcomin. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders while she put hers around his waist. The worries and stresses of the past two weeks vanished as she breathed in the fragrance of his cologne. A cough from Danny woke her up, she didn’t even noticed they were hugging that long. Andy let him go with a pat on his chest and turned around to the last member standing.

Jordan made his way to her but instead of giving her a hug, he just patted her shoulder, pretty weakly, with a ‘Nice to see you’. Then he went back to his seat. Joey noticed that behaviour and looked behind him and then on Andy. She shrugged her shoulders, wondering what the hell changed that he is suddenly that cold towards her.

“You finally all welcomed this lady? Can we start?” The man next to Ryan was getting rather annoyed and was eyeing Andy with a not very pleasant smile. Andy seated herself by the other side of the table, as far as possible from the snake-like creature. She had Donnie by her left hand and Joey in front of her, making funny faces at her.

The meeting was so official, or the snake-man tried to made it. At the start, Andy learned that his name was Hugo and by the looks on all faces, no one liked him very much. Hugo started his boring speech about numbers and sales and all that business around. Andy stopped listening and tried to look out the window. To her surprise, she didn’t feel sick looking out at the city scenery from above, it was really nice.  
She noticed Ryan took the word after Hugo and Donnie started to take part in the conversation as well as others, but even that didn’t make her pay attention. Her mind and sight wandered back to Jordan, who was studying his phone. But before she could elaborate the thought, Ryan finally managed to get her attention.  
“So Andy, will you be able to do that?”

Andy looked at him confused. “Erm… What?”  
She saw Joey mouthing her the answer, but her lip reading skills weren’t good.

“Well, while you were staring out of the window or at Jordan, Andrea,” Hugo started with a sarcastic voice, looking straight in her eyes, smiling. He made really sure to stress her full name to make Andy go low on her chair frowning, “we were discussing the next step for New Kids On The Block. The boys are going to do a reunion tour.”  
Now it made all sense! They wanted her for another job, so it meant she didn’t do anything wrong! Her spirit soared and she smiled for herself, although there was a big ‘BUT’ hanging in the air.

“It’s up to YOU, Andrea, to do all the choreography for the boys and their dancers,” Hugo joined his fingers in front of his face. “And the tour should start around the end of september.”  
THAT was the catch. Choreography for a few songs with 9 dancers was doable, but to make a choreography for a whole concert, that was another league. Andy quickly calculated in her head that there was about 20 something songs in a concert. She felt a heart attack coming at her. All color went away from her face.

“If I understand correctly, you want me to single handedly create a whole concert for 9 people in 2 months?” She looked at him with disbelief.

“Yes, it seems like you’re a clever girl after all, Andrea,” Hugo smiled with his slick smile at her. Donnie put his hand on her knee to stop her from jumping across the table in an attempt to strangle him. “You will obviously have some bonuses along the way. Like going on the tour with them, having your own bunk bed and so on,” Hugo added like it was nothing.

“Wait a minute. You want me to left all my work here and travel around the US doing what, controlling them?!” she yelped. She had enough work here in her own studio, there was no chance of her getting some free time to totter around Kids on their tour, even tho she adored them!

Hugo watched her like a patient parent its annoying child who does not want to go to bed.  
"Of course, Andrea, you will have to travel with them," he repeated after her like she was some kind of a slowpoke, who had to have all information parted to understand them.

‘One more time and I swear I’m gonna kill him,’ she thought for herself and took a deep breath to calm down. She noticed Joey grinding his teeth. Jordan sipped his coffee a bit too loudly. The table in front of Danny was creaking on how much he was holding onto it. The atmosphere in the room was getting tense.

"This is a great opportunity for you to gain some experience from the field and learn from the practise, Andrea."  
Her sight was beginning to gain red outlines around the edges. She was only seconds from throwing a glass of water at him.  
Donnie noticed her becoming annoyed not only by Hugo´s talking but with everything that was going on and he squeezed his fingers on her knee under the table to wake her up from the rage. Andy blinked a few times and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down at least a little bit.

“Here’s the contract for the upcoming job, go through it and give it back to Ryan when you signed it,” Hugo sent her a stash of papers on the table surface. Andy quickly ran through it and stopped at one page.

“You can’t be serious,” she whispered, all the rage was replaced with fear. Donnie looked over her shoulder to see what was going on. “I’m banned from disclosing any details regarding the work to anybody. How am I supposed to do everything alone?!”

"I noticed you have a partner, someone called Harry?" Hugo rustled with his papers, "he can probably run your little dance studio when you are gone," he said that like her lovely studio, her baby carefully build up from scratch, she paid hundreds for and enjoyed, was something stupid and unworthy his time.  
“And if I make a little change to the contract, he can probably help you, but,” Hugo’s smile got even more slicky, “you, Andrea, have to manage all the paperwork.”

Andy stared at him with her mouth opened for a second, then clenched her teeth shaking with rage. It was probably clear, that she was not a paperwork magician and why not reduce the load on him and give it to her. Only the big hot palm on her knee was holding her back from attacking.

"Well," he said and packed neatly his papers into the briefcase. "I will see you soon, boys, and you Andrea," he nodded to Andy and went for the door.

“Is he serious?” Andy looked at Ryan when she leaned on the table to see him. “He can’t do that, can he? CAN HE?!” she looked at everybody around the table, panicking.

“I’m afraid he can,” mumbled Jordan to his mug.

“Just kill me now, it would be quicker,” she sighed and sank into her chair, her face hiding in her palms.


	11. Expected troubles and unexpected visit

After a few meetings with Hugo, Andy, with a lot of help from Ryan, managed to persuade him to let her have someone, more precisely Henry, to assist her, but the request for paperwork stayed.

The following month was spent by planning the tour. The organization, as the arenas, accommodation, buses and so on, was up to Ryan. The artistic part and choosing dancers was up to Andy. Donnie gave her an early ‘present’ to celebrate her new work assignment with them. In a little envelope she found an USB flash disc with songs from their new album. Donnie said that it wasn’t finished yet as they were still working on some new ones, but it was better for her to have at least something before they were going to plan the set list, so she could have some insight to what the songs and whole album were like.  
The new songs were amazing, they were catchy, upbeat and you could dance to almost all of them. The Kids made sure to include even some ballads. But she was wondering why were all the songs mostly about sex. She tried to ask The Kids but she was brushed off with an easy answer, their audience are now ladies around 30, so they would be looking for some sexy time. She rather let that go before learning something she definitely didn’t want to.

After that, Andy spent most of her time sitting in the office with Kids and Ryan, and sometimes with Hugo, but he was gone most of the time, trying to figure out the setlist and to come to an agreement on how the stage should look like.  
There were a lot of fights about the songs given the fact when most of all agreed on one song, there always was one member who didn’t like that. Andy and Ryan let The Kids fight among themselves and planned something else, before they came together on the selection.

Hugo wasn’t kidding when he told her about the paperwork. After about a week, messenger came to the studio with a package for her. The first time there were only a few papers, but as the time passed, the stack only rose. Andy felt like she was doing a work of four people. She was running the studio, doing all the paperwork she was sure Hugo just made up to make her life even more miserable, taught her classes and tried to be a good housewife.

The last job didn’t go as well as she hoped for. When Steven found out she would be gone for a month or two with The Kids on tour, his thoughts went straight to her sleeping amongst them in one hotel room or tour bus and the really big and nasty fights began. Andy was often sleeping in the office for she didn’t have enough energy to come home to him and defend herself, when her day was spent with Kids.

The setlist was constantly changing as The Kids were still working in the studio adding new songs, but there were minor changes in this stage, like balad for balad and so on. Andy had the privilege to hear them all early thanks to Joey or Donnie, who often took her with them to the studio to get a little breather and relax.  
It was early July when the plans for the stage were finally complete and the builders began their work creating and assembling the parts. The front of the stage was empty making room for The Kids and dancers to dance right in front of the crowd. Behind it were three sets of stairs with a second stage on it and in the middle there was a lift for epic entrances.

Andy demanded that it would be better for everyone to rehearse with a miniature of the stage, but for that to happen a new studio was required as every hall in Andy’s building was too small to fit the stage in. Together with Lucy and Ryan they managed to persuade Hugo to say ‘Yes’ to the plan. He was murmuring about spending too much money but Andy was able to give him a price he couldn’t resist.

After that was done and the builders made the stage in the new studio, Andy could finally began working on the routines for songs and to plan the moves for the complete stage. She spent several evenings and sometimes whole nights perfecting the choreography alone in the hall. When she wasn’t dancing she was spending her time picking out dancers. She was very careful of her selection, because she wanted everything to be perfect.  
First one Andy picked was a girl with Asian predecessors, Aimi. Chelsea was from the south and her accent was really thick, she was always saying "y'all" and almost everything you could hear from a farmer girl. Next on the list was Zoey, but everyone used to call her Zozo. She was born in New York and it showed sometimes in her attitude. The last one Andy picked was a pretty and tall girl with skin like a milk chocolate named Serenity, Nety for short.  
All the girls immediately clicked like they knew each other for years and for the first time in years Andy could tell she had girls best friends in her life.  
After she figured out few of the routines the rehearsals could start, firstly separately from the girls. The work now required more of Lucy’s assistance to put together costumes, change breaks and other things. Those two had meetings every two days figuring every single detail that was in their competence. Lucy even helped her with her stack of papers that rose after the rehearsals began.

Andy started to feel more like a clerk than a dancer or choreographer. Hugo was sending more and more paperwork to fill out about the rehearsals, the dances and everything around. She was spending nights in her office, sleeping on the sofa, which didn’t make Steven one bit happy because she didn’t spend much time at home now. Even with Hugo trying to ruin her life, she still managed to steal some time for herself to teach classes or to attend one of Henry’s just to get her mind off the real work.

It was now late August, Monday, and The Kids were in studio, meaning no rehearsals with them today for Andy. They were about halfway done with the routines, some of them were now rehearsed completely with the stage and dancers some only on the bottom part of the stage. The sun was shining through the window on the floor of Andy’s and Henry’s office. Henry had the whole upcoming week off to enjoy his holiday somewhere in Bahamas or who knows where, so Andy had to deal with papers around studio as well as from Hugo.

She was sitting on the floor in lotus position, papers scattered all around her on the floor and another pile was sitting in her hand. She was still in her workout clothes, messy bun on her head, as she taught a few classes that day. In pure concentration she was biting the end of her pen, scribbling something on the top paper from time to time. She was getting more and more frustrated with her inability to get those damn papers finished.

After a hour of trying to fill out the papers, her frustration finally reached the boiling point.  
“For fuck’s sake, I’m not a clerk!” she shouted and threw the pile of papers in the air.

“Bad time for a visit, eh?” sounded from the door. Andy looked up through the slowly falling sheets of papers, that were making big circles around her while travelling to the ground. Donnie was looking at her rather worried, probably about her mental state, leaning on to the door frame.

“Not one bit,” Andy smiled weakly and started to gather the papers around her. Donnie came closer and knelt next to her. He helped her get it into a one big stack and then placed it on her desk. Andy stretched her legs on the ground, gathering her strength to stand up. A hand appeared in front of her face, she gladly took it and let Donnie pull her up on her feet. He studied her face longly as she was stretching her bowed and achy back. He was so used to her always beaming with energy, noticing only lately that she was stressed out, but now he could see the real tiredness in her face.

“You okay?” he asked and leaned his behind on her desk.

Andy dusted herself from sitting on the floor and looked at him. “Yeah, just a lot going on right now,” she smiled and wiped her forehead with her palm.

“I can tell,” Donnie looked at her desk that was filled with papers, binders and more papers.  
“Do you have any more classes or plans for today?” he smiled and folded his arms on his chest.

“Well, you helped me gather my plans for the rest of the day a minute ago,” she pointed at the high stack of papers laying next to him.

“Then go get changed and we’re leaving. You need to get out of here, my treat,” he smiled and shooed her to the door.

“I have to finish those papers by evening, otherwise Hugo will -” started Andy, but she was silenced by Donnie’s raised finger.

“Hugo has other things to worry about today, so he won’t do anything if you finish those papers tomorrow,” he smiled and waved towards the door to let her know the discussion was over. Andy spent a few minutes nervously looking at her papers but then turned around and went to get changed into her normal clothes.  
The weather was nice that week so Andy had a tank top with a light sweatshirt that revealed her shoulders, blue textile shorts and sneakers. She was not wearing dresses much lately as she did not want to provoke Steven by her choice of clothes. He had enough things to cause a scene about even without her dressing up nicely. She put her hair up in a long ponytail, as her hair was now reaching her breasts, and went back to the office.

Donnie was still waiting in her office, but he moved behind the desk, looking through the papers she had in various binders, frowning. He was so occupied with it he didn’t notice Andy standing by the door looking at him. She had to cough to get his attention. Donnie looked up and when he saw her all dressed up, he neatly folded those papers into stacks again and went to her.

“So you want me to get out, but you also got stuck by those damn papers,” she looked at him with her eyebrows raised and folded her arms on her chest. She had to tilt her head back a bit, when he stood right in front of her.

“I was just checking what the hell are you doing,” he chuckled and put his hand around her shoulders while walking towards the stairs leading downstairs and out.

“May I ask you what the fuck is ‘average step count for a routine’? Is that really legit?” Donnie looked at her curiously as they were getting out of the building.

“That is one of those things I suspect Hugo just made up,” she sighed, feeling partly relieved that she wasn’t the only one who found that strange. Donnie led her to the black mercedes parked outside the studio and opened a door for her.

“I hope you are not planning to kidnap and bury me somewhere outside the city,” joked Andy with one leg inside the car looking at him.

“Shoot! You saw the shovel in the trunk?” Donnie made a frightened face like she discovered something she wasn’t supposed to. After that she lost all her confidence in a second. He left her like that for a few seconds before he chuckled.

“That would be really counterproductive, don’t ya think? Who would come up with all those missing choreographies?! Me?” Donnie laughed and helped her get inside the car, then closed the door.

“Such a comedian,” mumbled Andy with a tiny smile and fastened her seat belt.

“Hey An,” sounded from the driver seat before Donnie got into the car himself.

“Fancy seeing ya, Vic,” Andy smiled when she recognized her favorite bodyguard. “Are we going somewhere dangerous or you’re just doing a driver today?” she looked at him curiously, maybe he could spill out where was Donnie taking her.

“I’m not telling you where we are heading, young lady,” Vic laughed while looking at her puffed cheeks. “But good try,” he admitted and started the car when Donnie closed his doors.

“I’m going to give you a chauffeur hat for Christmas,” Andy conjured up her most sweet and also bitter smile she had.

“You’ll like it I promise,” Don smiled, patted her knee and left his hand there. She looked at the big warm hand on her naked knee and then at him. His smile almost instantly made her feel a little better together with the warmth of his palm. She felt her cheeks getting hotter and a dumb smile creeping on her lips. She just hummed and quickly turned away looking out the window on the street around them.

***********************

“We’ve reached the target,” announced Vic when he stopped the car in a parking lot. Andy was in a half sleeping state. The calm humming of the car engine was soothing her from all the stress and commotion that was going on the last few weeks.  
She looked out the front window to see where they were.

“No way,” Andy breathed out. In front of them was a beach and a long boardwalk with something that looked like an amusement park. She knew this place! Despite the fact that the place was more modern and a little bit rebuild, at least she didn't remember the park, now she recognized it. It was the beach her family spent every weekend at, having picnics or swimming in the ocean when her dad had a free day from work. This place held so much memories for her it was unbelievable she didn’t visit it for a very long time. Donnie and Vic was looking at her as she stepped out of the car staring at the beach. She went to the grass surrounding the beach and looked around.

“Looks like you know this place,” sounded Donnie’s voice next her ear yanking her out of the memories stream.

“Know? I spent most of my childhood here!” she chuckled when she looked over her shoulder at him. “But THAT is a new even for me,” she then pointed at the amusement park at the end of the boardwalk.

“That’s a good thing, because that’s where we’re heading,” Donnie patted her on the shoulder, left his hand there and began to walk with her toward the park.

“I see Vic is going with us?” Andy looked over her shoulder. Vic was silently following them looking around.

“Yup,” said Donnie and shrugged. “Otherwise he would not let me go either,” he whispered to her.

“Aren’t you afraid that the fans are gonna swarm you?” now she looked plain scared. The idea of getting in the middle of crazy fans wasn’t something she would totally enjoy.

“No. A, I love our fans. B, they are not that crazy as they were back in the day. They will calmly come for a picture and a hug and then leave,” he laughed and looked at her pretty but worried face. “It will be okay, if they swarm you, Vic will protect you,” he whispered with a smile to her ear and Andy shivered when his warm breath touched her neck.

‘This has to stop. You have a boyfriend. You love him, you don’t want to lose him, so stop acting like that. Like right now!’ Andy thought for herself and closed her eyes for a second to calm herself down.

The three of them entered the park by the main gate and Donnie with Andy and Vic behind their backs went straight for the food stand. He wasn’t lying when he said it was his treat. He paid for everything they bought even if Andy was protesting because she definitely didn’t like that. In the end Andy got a big ice-cone, Donnie went for a hot-dog with mustard and they both picked out a big ball of purple cotton candy, blackberry flavored, for Vic.

They couldn’t go on any rides until they ate their food, so they were walking around the park picking out what they would do after that. Donnie was supplying Andy with funny jokes or catch-phrases and by the time she was done with her snack her stomach hurted from so much laughing. Donnie was smiling also, it was a very pleasant change to see her laugh from her heart and not to be constantly worried about something.

Vic was the last one with food when they came up to the big rollercoaster that went around half of the park. Andy stood before the entrance looking up to the track above her when Donnie was paying for the tickets.

“Wooow, that’s really high,” said Vic standing next to her looking up as well stuffing his mouth with the last bits of cotton candy. Andy gulped after she realized the height of it. She wasn’t, say, afraid of heights but she certainly didn't enjoy being up high.

“Here are our tickets, we can go to the queue,” said Donnie with a big smile on his face handing everyone their ticket.  
“What’s wrong?” he looked at Andy when he noticed her pale face.

“I’m just not a big fan of heights,” she looked up at him and shivered slightly.

“Oh, so that’s why you’ve fallen from heaven, little angel?” Donnie whipped up his shiny smile and winked at her. Andy’s cheeks got the tone of red velvet cake and she lowered her sight to the ground. She wasn't very used to getting compliments and Donnie loved so much to discomfit her with little hints. He was doing that all summer long, but she couldn’t say she didn’t like a little compliment here and there. In fact she liked it even more when it came from Donnie, but he was still a little discomfiting her.

The queue wasn’t too long and before Andy could run away it was their turn to get seated. Donnie, as a real gentleman, let Andy sit down first and then sat himself next to her, leaving Vic to sit behind them. It took him a little while to fit in the little cart for he was a big man. When he finally sat down, Andy could hear murmuring from the cart behind them something about not seeing on the track. She smiled, but was still a little bit worried, but that went away the second their train rode out on the track. As she and Donnie were squealing on every sharp turn on the track, Andy almost forgot about her fear of heights.

When the train returned back to the station and the door of each car opened, Andy and Donnie got out laughing holding onto each other. They looked back at Vic, who got out after them and their smile froze. Vic’s face blended with the white wall behind him, that pale was he. Before Andy or Donnie could do anything the big man ran around them with his hand in front of his mouth heading for the nearest bushes. The combination of cotton candy with sharp curves of the rollercoaster didn’t do any good to his stomach. As Vic was turning his stomach inside out, Andy’s caring personality showed up. Donnie was standing aside, where he was pushed by her after he threw in something about seeing everything but purple was new even for him, visibly disappointed how the day turned out. Andy stood right next to Vic, when he was producing some very nasty noises. She was stroking his back, telling him that it’s gonna be okay, trying to help him through it.

After Vic got out almost everything that was in him, Andy helped him to the bathrooms near the pier. He disappeared inside and Andy leaned on the railing, looking at the sun setting behind the sea and exposing her face to its last warm touches.

“I shouldn’t have bought him the cotton candy,” Donnie chuckled when he leaned on the railing next to her.

“What’s done it’s done. We can just hope that he’s going to be okay for the rest of the evening, cause I’m not going home yet,” Andy smiled and looked at him.

“Thought you would be rushing to get home on time to be with your boyfriend,” he looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Well, Steven is away on some business trip, so the only thing waiting for me at home is my sofa and TV,” she smiled and looked at the sun again. Donnie breathed in to say something funny, but he got speechless by the view in front of him. Andy’s grey eyes were shining like a mountain lake in the sun and a blissful smile was set on her lips. It was a really long time since he saw her that relaxed and smiling, not with a fake smile she tried to fool everyone around that she was okay, but with a smile that was sincere. He finally came up with something to get the stress of the upcoming tour, fights with Hugo and probably some problems at home out of her head.  
Donnie wanted to capture this moment so he could remind her how happy she could be. His trusty phone appeared in his hand within a seconds and a silent ‘tink’ was heard when the photo was taken. Andy looked over at him and Donnie froze, expecting her to start shouting at him. How surprised was he, when Andy just smiled, supported her head with her hand and sort of posed for him to take another picture and Donnie was more than happy to do so.

Their little photoshoot was interrupted by Vic, who finally stumbled out of the restroom, still pale but looking a little bit better than before. Vic assured them that he was okay to continue their little adventure around the amusement park, but he refused to go on any wild rides which visibly pleased Donnie, but he didn’t say a thing.

Their steps led to the haunted house. Andy swore that Donnie had to be choosing only the rides that scared her. She was afraid of almost everything, she couldn’t watch any horror movie alone and if she agreed to watch it with someone, said person had to stay the night with her otherwise she wouldn’t close her eyes for one second. She tried to act brave and went into the cart next to Donnie with an amused smile on her face, but biting her nail on the inside. Vic was a little afraid of getting sick again, but he really wanted to try this ride so he got in the cart behind them. As soon as the train began to move and the entry door closed behind it, everyone could hear the high pitched screams coming from the inside of the ride.

After the train went through the whole house it emerged again through the other doors, with a view only a few would understand. Andy got so scared during the ride, that she almost ended up sitting on Donnie’s lap. He was now holding her around her shoulders, lightly rubbing them, telling her that everything was gonna be okay meanwhile trying not to laugh out loud. Vic, he was the most scared of the ride going in, was now sitting in his seat with face of total boredom, almost falling asleep.  
It took Andy a while to get herself together after the Haunted House experience. She wasn’t talking much, just humming to everything and Donnie felt really guilty for making her go. His goal was to make her feel better, not to frighten her to death! He made a mental note she was a real scaredy-cat and nothing like that was acceptable for her at this time. He made sure he stayed close to her to make her feel at least a little bit better while looking around for something to get her mood back up again. And then he saw it!  
There was a little stand with water guns and clown’s heads to shoot at. If this wouldn’t get her smile back nothing would. Donnie smiled and inconspicuously altered their way to end up right in front of the stand. He then acted all surprised when they got there. Vic let them have all the fun alone, as he was not interested in those kind of childish games. At the beginning Andy was still silent but the game woke up a good sense of rivalry in her and after few seconds she was laughing again. Nothing pleased Donnie more, than hearing her laugh.

A few spots from the clown stand was a little shooting range with moving targets, but that really was not what caught Andy’s attention. On the side of the stand, as one of the prizes, was hanging a big stuffed unicorn. It looked like it’s fur had to be really fluffy and it was mostly white. It’s mane was colorful like a rainbow and the horn was sparkling even from the distance. She was staring at it with mouth half opened and a smile for a moment but then moved onto the souvenir stands across the aisle.  
Vic saw it and poked Donnie next to him, as they were coming back from the drink stand, to let him know. Donnie ordered Vic to hold his drink and guard Andy in case she would suddenly turn around. The unicorn was a grand prize so it took all of his skills to get to the level to win it. After a few tries, more like a lot tries, he finally hit enough moving targets that the woman said the unicorn was his. Meanwhile Donnie was paying for his tries and talking with the woman, Vic tried to help him by taking the unicorn carefully down, like it was his baby. He smiled and turned around to wait for Donnie but met with Andy’s eyes staring at him, her smile widening by the second.

“You won that for me?!” Andy was looking at Vic with eyes wide opened and fixated on the big unicorn he was holding in his arms.

“Erm… Yes? Well no… I mean yes, that’s for you, An,” it was obvious that Vic was rather confused and worried but finally gave the plushie to her. Andy squealed like a little girl, jumped up and down on a spot and almost jumped around Vic’s neck but he was too tall for her and she would need a stool to reach him.

Right in that moment as Andy was jumping with joy, Donnie turned around to Vic to get the prize and his smile froze on his face when he saw Vic holding out the unicorn to her. His face went through all shades of red as someone else was receiving all the kisses and thank yous for his hard work.

They spent rest of the evening by walking around the park and trying all the rides. Donnie was grumpy about what happened, but seeing Andy jumping around hugging the unicorn tightly and laughing brought back his good mood. Vic was trying to keep his distance from Don for he knew that he would probably get killed for stealing the spotlight. He was feeling better but didn’t want to risk it so he was happy to stay behind and wait for them in front of the rides, holding Mr. Glitterhorn, as Andy named him, and waving at them.

The last ride left in the park was a carousel with horses, cars and everything one could imagine. Vic came to a conclusion that this ride could be safe for his stomach and went with them. The last picture Donnie took was there. He just couldn’t pass the opportunity of capturing Andy, riding a horse with her new unicorn companion.

It was nearing midnight when there was nothing else to do in the park, even the carousel was conquered, only the ride home remained. Donnie had to go behind the wheel as Vic felt ill again after the carousel ride, he had to get down in the middle to be sure his stomach would not turn inside out again. He sat down in the back, but Don and Andy, who sat on the passenger seat, didn’t want Vic to feel alone so they buckled up Mr. Glitterhorn next to him in the car.

Donnie stopped in front of Andy’s house first. Like a real gentleman held her door and helped her out of his car before getting Mr. Glitterhorn out.

“Thank you for the evening. You were right that I needed to get out,” Andy smiled and nodded, in the end a night out was definitely the best for her today.

“It was my pleasure to spend the evening with a beautiful lady,” he winked at her and handed her her unicorn. Andy smiled and looked at her feet, her cheeks were getting red but gladly she was slowly getting used to his compliments.

“Maybe we could spend more evenings together like this? What about a cinema next time? I’ll let you chose the movie under the condition that it won’t be a romantic nonsense,” Donnie smiled and chuckled at the end, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Deal,” Andy laughed and reached out her hand to shake on that promise. He gently shook her hand. His hand wrapped around hers, making it almost disappear. He held it a little longer, enjoying the moment where she was really herself. They didn’t know each other for a long time but Donnie really liked how he was feeling when she was around. And he would do anything to make this short and bubbly girl happy every time he saw her being sad.  
The moment was getting maybe a little bit awkward and Donnie realized that it was time to say goodbye. He pulled her by her arm closer and leaned for a goodbye kiss on the cheek but Andy took a step back when he did so.

“Sorry I didn’t mean that….” Donnie tried to apologize. He remembered too late the things he heard from her mum but Andy just smiled and waved her hand. “It’s okay, nothing happened.”

The window went down and Vic’s head appeared in there. “I’m really sorry to interrupt your little moment here, but can we go? I’d really like to get home,” he looked at Donnie pleadingly. Donnie looked at him and just nodded, then he turned around to Andy.

“I’m counting on you with the cinema,” he pointed at her and opened the car door.

“I’m looking forward to it. See you on Monday,” Andy smiled and before Donnie could react she hugged him really tight around his chest, standing on her tiptoes. He was a little bit surprised but gladly put his arms around her and lightly and stroke her back before she let go of him. Donnie then got in the car and started it while Andy was waving them goodbye.

“That could end up better, I guess.”  
“Shut up you wise-ass!”


End file.
